99 Stars and Maybe One More
by Kitty'sCommittee
Summary: The blue in Winry's eyes always reminded him of the flowers that would crop up in springtime, the hydrangeas that grew in Pinako's yard, and the sky after the last of the clouds had blown away and left a blue canvas above their heads. Lots of beautiful things reminded him of Winry, but none ever seemed just as breathtaking when he looked at her. 100 EdWin prompts. Art by minuiko.
1. Dresses

**lets rock and roll**

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_Dresses_

"I don't see the point in going to this stupid after party." Edward mumbled from his spot on the bed, blowing a wisp of bang away from his eyes. "I mean, we went to the wedding. What's the use of another gathering?"

Winry paid his mumblings no heed, too busy unzipping the back of a dress. Finally she managed to get the zipper wrangled down enough to step into it, and she heaved a sigh before moving to put it on. "Ed, you've known General Mustang for at least 9 years now, I don't see why you're being such a baby about going to he and Riza's afterparty."

Ed made a noise of distaste, sitting upright on the bed to glare at his wife's back as she stepped into her evening gown. "You're only saying that because you're friends with Miss Hawkeye."

"Mrs. Mustang." Winry gently corrected, pulling her blonde hair out of the neck of the dress to lay it over her shoulder. She decided to keep going, cutting off any words her husband might offer in retaliation. "Besides, Riza and Roy stood in with Izumi and Sig as your parental units at our wedding. They're practically family by now."

She turned around, one arm twisted behind her to hold the top of the zipper in place. "We got married before they did, and they're much older than we are. It's about time they had some happiness of their own in their lives."

Ed looked sideways at the lamp on the nightstand, resigning himself to his lack of a retort. Winry breathed out, a small smile pulling the corners of her mouth upwards. "Now will you zip me up? We're going to be late for the toast."

The bed creaked as Edward stood up and Winry twirled around, putting her bare back to him. Brushing a wisp of hair away from the back of Winry's neck, Ed grabbed the zipper near the small of her back, pulling it up as he dragged his knuckles purposefully up her spine. Winry tensed at the tingling feeling, and Ed gave an accomplished smirk to the back of her head.

"Ed! You always do that-" Said blond cut her off with a kiss to the nape of her neck, his breath fanning out over her neck as he drew away. Moving to stand beside his wife, Edward gave her a sidelong smile and offered his hand.

"'Bout time we got going, don't want to be late."


	2. Worry

**I got such nice reviews on the first chapter! I'm glad you guys enjoy the idea of this. I see edwin drabble fics all the time, so I was worried everyone would get bored with another one.  
**

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Worry:

The air of the room was cold, biting the cheeks and the tips of fingers with a vengeance. The seconds were going by agonizingly slow, breaking the silence of the room with every miniscule tick. The soft wind that floated through the window stirred the curtains, moving the breezy blue fabric with every gust. Even with all these things to notice in the quiet hospital room, Winry stayed preoccupied with her book, too worried and soaked up in glancing up at Ed every few seconds to pay any attention to her surroundings.

When he finally gave a throaty sigh and started to wake up, Winry's head snapped up from the page she had been lingering on. She watched as Ed's hand wandered to his forehead, pushing away hair to touch clean bandages. He blinked several times before finally speaking, glancing up from his lap to look at Winry.

"How long have you been sitting there, Win?"

Winry was taken aback at how concerned he sounded, his light eyes not leaving hers. Instead of "How long was I out?" or "Where's Alphonse?" she got "How long have you been sitting there?" Was he worried he said something in his sleep? Realizing she was stalling, Winry pressed an answer out, the words coming out in more anxious than she anticipated. "About 5 and a half hours I suppose, I had a book."

Edward's eyebrows furrowed and Winry had a feeling he had quite a few questions. "What time did you take the train to Central?"

Winry made an attempt not to look sheepish, glancing sidelong at the tiled floor before looking back at him. "I took the night train."

Ed's eyes narrowed. "There's two. Please tell me you didn't rush down here on the midnight train after you got a call."

Finally Winry stood up, her face warming with embarrassment as she put an indignant expression on her face. "Why are you so worried about me anyway, you're the injured one, idiot!"

She heard Edward scoff, his voice offended. "I'm not worried! I'm just-" His sentence broke off lamely, leaving the quiet of the room to fill the space he had left in his words.

Winry turned around again, only this time to face him. Ed's face had gotten considerably redder, his arms crossed over his chest. Silence held for a few gracious moments before he spoke again. "I'm glad you came."

Winry gave him a small smile, hugging her book to her chest. Typical of him to worry about someone else before himself. "It was nothing, Ed."


	3. Late

Late:

Ed blew his hair out of his face, looking down at an asleep Winry. A few locks of cornsilk hair were sprawled over the mahogany of her desk, the rest draped over her shoulders and arms. A smear of grease marred the spot below her left eye, obscuring freckles and clashing with the pink tone of her cheeks.

Typical of her to finally work herself to exhaustion and fall asleep at four in the morning. Nice to see she hadn't changed any.

Heaving a sigh, Ed tossed his coat over the chair before leaning down, slipping one forearm under the back of her legs and bracing the other against her back. She stirred as he picked her up, her lips parting as her eyes fluttered open. If there had been any surprise Ed must have missed it, because she only shut her eyes again, resigning herself to being carried to bed.

"You'sure are home late." Winry's voice was quiet, some of her words slurring together.

Ed's eyes flickered to her face for a fraction of a second before he replied, pulling her bedroom door open with his foot. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Winry stayed silent, her drowsiness overtaking her ability to communicate. Ed shifted his weight from what foot to the other, wondering how she felt so light in his arms compared to last time. Picking her up in Rush Valley has been no issue, but this time it felt much less strenuous, easy even. Perhaps the Lieutenant was right, he was growing up just a bit. He didn't take the time to think too deeply on it, too preoccupied with the fact she was falling deeper into a blissful sleep the longer he held her. His chest felt warm, and Ed took a quiet breath to try and shake loose the feeling.

Bending just enough to set her down and not lose his balance, Ed set her down onto the mattress, gently prying his arms out from underneath her. Winry didn't move besides to unwind her arm from around his neck, obviously too far gone to make any sort of comment or complaint if she had one. He lingered for a moment, not willing himself to leave just yet. Leaning down again, Ed swiped his thumb against her cheek to get rid of the streak of joint oil, thankful when she didn't wake and ask him what he was doing.

He was halfway out the door when he heard Winry speak for the second time that night. 'Goo'night Ed."

A smile quirked the corners of his mouth upwards. "Goodnight Win."

Maybe the Lieutenant was right about him loving her too.

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**Fact: I'm actually a big baby who cries over edwin at least 14 times a day**


	4. Birthday

**THE EDWIN TRAIN HAS NO BREAKS**

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Birthday:

Summer brought quiet afternoons in the Rockbell/Elric house like the sun brought heat and the clouds brought warm rain, but along with all of those things, it brought Ed home for her birthday. Her birthday was the ninth day of June, and if there was one thing Edward Elric was adamant on besides getting Alphonse's body back, it was always making it back home for her birthday.

There was not one occasion in which he missed it, and even if he stumbled off a train two hours before midnight brought the end of the special day, you could count on him to bring her a gift before the clock struck twelve.

Thats why when the grandfather clock in their dining room chimed for the twelfth time in a row, Winry had to suppress a sigh. He hadn't called saying he wouldn't arrive, or that his train was late, or even that he broke his automail _again _and needed her to come save his sorry butt. Pinako had long retreated to bed, gifting her with yet another cup of tea before she climbed up to her room. Blowing over the rim of the teacup, the blonde pouted at the painted china like it was the reason for her overwhelming sorrow.

Glancing at the face of the cedar clock again, Winry repressed the sudden urge to call him, just to see if he was _alive. _

After another agonizing moment of wallowing in her self pity, Winry stood, picking up her teacup. She was halfway to the sink when the sound of metal against wood rang out, making her heart skip a beat. She nearly gave herself whiplash with how fast she turned around, the teacup forgotten on the table as she made her way towards the door. A sheepish Edward and Alphonse greeted her as she opened the door, illuminated by the glare of the porchlight. Winry nearly asked why Ed looked like he ran a marathon, but held her tongue when she realized the duo probably sprinted all the way from the train station to save time.

"Seven minutes isn't too late, right?" Ed mumbled, glancing sidelong at the doorframe to try and play off his blush of embarrassment.

Winry laughed, her worry and disappointment melting away. "No Ed, seven minutes isn't too late."

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**Fact: Edward Elric would rather lose his other arm than miss his mechanic's birthday. **

**Friendly reminder you _can_ request stuff, the list I'm using is very malleable, and I'd prefer to include some of you guy's requests instead of some of the words that hold no appeal to me. So send 'em in, and I'll do my best!**

**Have a good night and I'll see you this Friday! **


	5. Promises

Promises:

"Promise you won't get banged up too much Ed, alright?" Winry murmured as she adjusted the collar on Ed's jacket. Ed gave a sidling glance to the looming form that was Alphonse, pretending to ignore what she was saying before he pulled away. Winry's eyes flickered to his face, and he made eye contact with her for a split second before bending to pick up his suitcase.

"I promise I won't break myself or my automail, is that good?" Ed tossed back in response, turning to follow Alphonse out the door, his suitcase in hand. Winry gave a responding hum as the door swung shut, meeting it's hinges with a rattle.

Ed trotted down the stairs behind Alphonse, catching up quickly to stride beside him. The silence was only broken by the sound of the armour clinking, a sound Ed had long ceased to notice, but the tinny sound of Alphonse's voice broke the quiet after they had gotten a fair distance away from the Rockbell home.

"You know Brother, you shouldn't lie to Winry like that."

Ed turned to look up at his sibling. "Whadd'ya mean Al? I never lied to Winry."

Alphonse responded, his voice unfaltering. "We're gonna get hurt doing the stuff we do, it's a fact. You can't make promises you can't keep to her."

Ed kept his gaze trained at the ground as he tried to think of a response. Finally he resigned himself to a loss for words, and looked up at the dusty, well-worn path in front of them. "You know, next time I think I'll say 'I'll _try_ not to break myself or my automail, how's that?"

"Brother! Can't you take anything seriously for once?!"


	6. Feeling

Feeling:

Edward woke up to a face full of Winry's hair and the cry of an infant, which wasn't all unpleasant considering Winry always smelled like apples, but it was a wake up call nonetheless. Winry gave a whimper as she rose to consciousness beside him. Ed was already untangling his legs from hers, the thick taste of sleep heavy on his tongue and the sound of Milly crying offering as sufficient background noise.

Setting his feet on the ground, the ex-alchemist tried to blink the sleep from his eyes, running a hand through his hair. Winry moved to start getting up, but Ed stopped her before she got far. "I got it Win, go back to sleep."

He leaned over to kiss her cheek, and Winry gave an acknowledging hum as he pulled away. "I love you." She murmured drowsily, and Ed let himself smile as he looked at her.

"I love you too, Winry." He brushed her hair away from her face before he stood up, stretching as he walked towards the bedroom door. Milly's bedroom was right besides theirs. Edward being the worrisome father he is, wanted her as close as possible without being in the room herself, which he had mentioned before they decided their room was small enough without crib in it.

Ed yawned as he pushed open Milly's door, moving quietly towards the crib settled in the corner of the room. He bent to pick her up, cradling her over his shoulder as she hiccuped with tears. Once she had finished crying for good, finally letting herself settle into a quiet rhythm of breathing, Ed moved her to rest in the crook of his arm.

He took soft steps around the room, rocking her as she fell back asleep. It gave him a teary feeling, holding his child as she fell asleep. The heavy, agonizingly real feeling that made his eyes burn and his breath hitch. All of the guys at Central would probably laugh at him for saying such a mushy thing, but for some reason Ed had a feeling Hughes would understand the feeling.

It was a uniquely 'dad' feeling. He was sure Winry felt something close to it, perhaps even more intimate than what he felt considering she was Milly's mother, but he felt like it was the rite of passage for parents. Holding your child and realizing that in your hands you hold a life that means as much to you as your own and that of your partner. The feeling of unconditional love.

Looking down at Milly, Ed decided to was time for both of them to go back to bed, and took slow strides back to the crib to set her down. He kissed her forehead, resting his lips there against her head for a long moment before laying her back down on her stomach and covering her with her blanket.

By the time he had crawled back into bed with Winry, she was fast asleep, and within a span of another few minutes, he had joined her.


	7. Hair

Hair:

Winry's fingers were nimble, working through a tangle in his hair with an ease Edward was jealous he lacked. He would usually just resort to yanking it out with a comb and a death wish, but when Winry was present she usually insisted upon fixing it herself.

"You know, you try putting it up in a ponytail more often." Winry murmured as she ran the comb through his hair one last time for good measure. A silence fell as she began to separate his hair into three parts, the start of a typical braid.

Ed hummed back absentmindedly. "Maybe."

Winry tied off the braid with a rubber band she had on her wrist, wrapping the black tie around his gold hair before dropping her hands to her lap and moving to get up. "Done. You're free to go."

Climbing to his feet, he heard Winry putting the chair she had been sitting in back at the dining room table. He touched the braid at the nape of his neck. "You always do that so much better than I do." He mumbled bitterly, watching Winry turn around to face him.

Winry laughed and tossed the comb she had used from one hand to the other. "Feminine charm, I suppose."

The alchemist scoffed. "Not much is feminine about you, gear-head."

Ed barely had time to duck before the the tin comb that had just graced his head came hurdling back.


	8. Confessions

Confessions:

Moving seemed to be even more mountainous of a challenge than building the actual house was, considering neither of them realized exactly how many belongings they possessed until they were being packed for transportation. Most of what Winry treasured was packed away in boxes of varying sizes in varying places, and she didn't realize how much of it was mementos and pictures until she had laid it all out.

One box held the letters and pictures from her parents during their time in Ishval, another contained some of her first projects and blueprints, one had assorted papers and records from clients in Rush Valley, and anything else she could remember keeping. The last was one she rifled through the most often, although she'd never tell Ed that in a million years.

Said ex-alchemist had taken a certain interest in watching her work on sorting it out, sitting across from her and the flood of junk and paper separating them. The chests were casually placed around them along with the boxes they'd readied for packing.

Winry skipped thoughtfully over the cedar chest containing the letters and pictures from her parents, deciding they had already been looked through times enough before. If Edward had noticed, he said nothing, which she was grateful for. No use stirring up bad memories on a happy day.

An hour had passed before she got to the last and most recent box; a wicker case with a snap lock. A smile tugged the corners of her mouth upwards, and Ed gave her a questioning look.

"What's in that one that's getting you in such a good mood?" Ed asked, eying the box with a look of suspicion. Winry laughed as she clicked the lock into the open position.

"It's all the small things you and Alphonse got me over the years." She said lightly, rummaging through the clutter of jewelery boxes and letters marked to "The Rockbell Household" until she paused, stopping on one envelope marked "Winry Rockbell" in Ed's familiar, round print.

Ed leaned over, about to ask what the matter was before he paused, realizing solemnly what it was.

He stayed silent as she opened it, unfolding the paper inside. Ed offhandedly noted the creases from where she had folded and unfolded the paper a multitude of times, but kept the thought to himself.

Winry read over the letter for a thousandth time, skimming to the end where it ended with a black smudge next to "Ed" at the bottom of the paper. Leaning over, the blonde gestured for Edward to look at the scribble of black next to his signature. "What was originally written there? I had always wondered, but I never got a chance to ask."

A hint of red tinted her fiance's cheeks, and Ed gave the letter another glance before he started to speak, a humored smile gracing his lips. "I had written several failed attempts to tell you how I felt about you that night, until I finally gave up and wrote a normal letter." Ed tapped a finger against the smudge on the paper before continuing. "That's where I slipped up and wrote 'Love, Ed' instead of 'From Ed.'"


	9. Letters

**The last one for the day, have some Elric brother feelings because I enjoy making myself and others cry. **

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Letter:

The day he and Al had come back whole was the day he had reread the letter. It was a promise he had made to himself a long time ago, one he knew would be fulfilled if not by him, then by Alphonse. The yellowed paper was set at the bottom of a desk drawer, kept flat by a photobook of pressed flowers Winry had given him long after the letter was written, long after Trisha had passed.

The paper was soft and the ink grainy from years of deterioration, but his mother's script was just as neat as it was the day she wrote it. Alphonse and Winry had read it with him, his brother at his right and his fiance at his left.

Reading the words aloud had cut Edward's throat like gargling broken glass, and he had to pause to gather himself before starting again several times. It had been no less than a few seconds after Ed had finished reading off 'From your loving mother, Trisha' that the tears were streaming freely down the two brother's faces.

Winry was the only one who refused to shed tears, deciding it was not her place to cry, but her place to comfort.

Ed did not look past the solace her hand on his offered.

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**Do you ever get really emotional over Trisha Elric? I do.**


	10. Innuendo

**I totally did not write this to the song Sunlight by the Bag Raiders. Definitely not.**

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Innuendo:

His hand burned pleasantly as it slid up her hip, contrasting with the chill of the air and the cold press of the wall against her back. Ed didn't let her linger on the feeling however, before long he was trailing kisses down the length of her throat down to her collarbone. Winry curled her fingers into the back of his shirt, her blush escalating to a burning flame in her cheeks and face.

Ed noticed as he moved back up to kiss her mouth, having succeeded in leaving a nice red mark on the side of her neck. He grinned at her in an accomplished manner that made Winry want to leave him high and dry for the fun of it. "Little too much at once, Win?"

Winry looked away indignantly, "You're full of it Ed."

Ed ignored her pout, taking advantage of her exposed shoulder to place an open mouthed kiss there. He drew away, mumbling something against the skin of her neck. "You're about to be full of me too."

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**lmfao u can guess who slept on the couch after that stunt (hint: its ed because he cant control his sassy mouth)**


	11. Sleep

**Hey guys! Guess what day it is today! _Update day_**

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Sleep:

Winry's breath was warm against Ed's collarbone, slow and steady in comparison to his maniacal heartbeat. The blond stole an ugly glance to Alphonse, who had his hands up in a mock retreat.

"I told you she was gonna fall asleep! Most likely on me too!" Edward whispered furiously, trying to stay quiet and still relay his fury through whispers. Alphonse only raised his hands higher in response.

"I was not going to let Winry sit alone, and you're warmer than I am, brother!" Alphonse whisper-yelled back from the other side of the train seat.

Ed glanced down at Winry, whose ponytail had fallen over her shoulders to rest over her collarbone. She was fast asleep, her head rested on Ed's shoulders and her upturned hand resting on his thigh. It was a serene position, and he was glad she was getting some sleep. She was always tired after leaving Central, especially when it was on call because he did something stupid.

Giving another angry glance to his brother, Ed put an arm around her to keep her close. Alphonse gave nor response, but he would have been lying if he had said he was surprised when Ed fell asleep too.


	12. Read

Read

The lines of text had just begun to blur by the time she had come in, black ink blurring with cream pages until he was struggling to keep his eyes from crossing. She was wrapped in a blanket, the blue one she never seemed to take off the bed except to wash, and her steps were just as soft as her hand on his shoulder.

"Ed." Her voice was almost indistinguishable from the sound of the rain pattering on the roof and Ed took a moment to wonder how long she had been waiting for him to come to bed before she came after him.

Feeling guilty, Ed glanced at the book, forming his excuse for being up so late. "I wanted to finish it before-"

Winry's hand slid down his arm to rest in the crook of his elbow, and she interrupted him with a grace she only possessed when she was sleepy. "There's no need to rush anymore Ed. You've done everything you needed and more. Just rest."

Ed breathed out, mulling over what she said for a few moments before flipping the book closed. The black text disappeared as the cover obscured it, and as the pages were hid from view, the blond began to grasp how tired he really was. Turning to stand from the chair, Edward grabbed his fiance's hand before leaning over to kiss her on the forehead. "You're right Win. Let's go to bed."

Sleepy or otherwise, she was right. There was no need to worry anymore.


	13. Grave

**Apologies in advance for this one.**

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Grave

Hughes' name still looked freshly chiseled on the granite, and Ed had no doubts that if he ran a finger against the words he would cut his finger on the sharp edges. The day was important in the most morbid of ways, the anniversary of the brigadier general's death and the only occasion in which both Ed and Winry would travel up to Central for a cemetery.

There were signs that others had been there that day for the same reasons. A framed picture of Roy and Riza on their wedding day was propped against the headstone, Roy's bad handwriting reading "I can't believe you missed out, buddy." A picture of Gracia and Eliza graced the grave as well, mingled amongst the flowers.

It had become tradition to put the pictures on the grave every year, and while one of the members of Mustang's group always gathered them up before it rained on them, no-one ever stopped putting them there. A picture of Ed and Winry's wedding day had sat for a long while, along with a photograph of Elysia's first sundress of the new year. The pictures were like a timeline of their lives for Hughes, and no-one ever skipped putting one down every year.

Sitting back on his heels, Ed added another picture to the mix, his contribution for the year. The glass framing the photo glinted as he set it down, and Ed stopped to look at it. Winry, Ed, Mei and Alphonse made up the center of the picture along with Milly and Fletcher, and other members of their ragtag family littered the mix. Pinako had taken the picture several times to get it right, and Ed was glad after all the strain it took to smile so long was worth it.

Taking a breath, Edward stood up. Winry pressed against his side in response, her warmth fighting off the chill of the autumn air. Ed was infinitely and silently grateful for it.

"Are you alright?" She murmured, her gaze not leaving the lettering sprawled against the granite headstone.

Ed nodded, swallowing with some difficulty. "I will be."

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**I'm gone for days and I come back to you with _this._ I know. I'm horrible. I'll be back either tomorrow or Sunday for a couple more!**


	14. Joy

**911? yeah its me. i need an ambulance again. **

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Joy:

The baby was born with good lungs, Ed would give her that. Winry was the first to hold her, and Ed watched with gentle eyes as his wife pressed a kiss to the child's cheek, obviously overcome with more emotion than she could let out. Ed felt a rush of affection for her, for both of them, and the tightness in his throat worsened when Winry held the tiny baby girl out to him.

He worked his jaw, struggling for words to convey that _yes,_ dear god _yes_ he would love to hold her. Even with his wave of powerful emotions, he hesitated taking her from his wife, something holding him back. After a split second Winry must have sensed it; because she gave him a weary yet beautifully sure smile.

"Take her Ed."

Ed nodded numbly as he took the soft newborn into his arms. He cradled her, feeling warm radiate from her tiny body. He managed to hold his composure for a moment, just long enough to formulate words and force them from his throat before the hot tears stung his cheeks.

"She's beautiful Winry."

Winry only smiled in response, watching one of the most powerful men on earth unravel at the sight of his daughter.


	15. Flowers

Flowers:

Winry's favorite flowers were daisies, but even with her love for the simple white flowers, she could never push herself into buying them in bouquets to put around the Rockbell home. Smelling them wither and die and having to throw out the browned remains after they lost their beauty only made her sad.

Ed must have noticed this over the course of his visits, because after he had long left for Central and Winry had returned home and hung her coat, she noticed the plain pot on the windowsill, white blooms peering over the red clay towards the sunlight. She had smiled then, realizing with a rush of affection that they were daisies.

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**I'm pretty sure when I'm 30, I'm gonna be in counselling because I still won't be able to let go of this ship. **


	16. Resolve

**I'll be updating a lot more frequently now. I plan on throwing myself into my writing, since a lot of other good things in my life kinda fell through. **

**Shoot me some prompts, and give me something to do, will ya?**

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Resolve

The pain was agonizing, fiery and all consuming, and Ed choked back the urge to just let himself pass out. Surely death would hurt less than a pipe through his hip. Surely.

He made an attempt to ignore the feeling of every individual grain of dirt against the side of his face, and the burn of the cold air against the other side. He succeeded, only instead his mind flickered to the throbbing mass of pain that was the spot between his hipbone and his stomach, and he suddenly had the overwhelming urge to vomit.

Ed shut his eyes, focusing on the slow, shallow breaths he had fallen into a rhythm of taking every second or so. Winry would hate him if he died. She had made it through discovering she was a hostage. She had made it through facing her parent's murderer. She had made the decision to travel with Scar when he couldn't even fathom the thought.

Winry had always stuck around and made time for him when he couldn't even remember to call.

The least he could do for her now was stay alive.

Mustering his resolve, Ed let himself start small and tried to twitch his fingers. He had to move, he had to move before his body let itself get too dependent on the support of the ground. Forcing his fist into the dirt, he pulled his upper body off the stone floor of the mine shaft, cursing inwardly when his body reacted in protest.

"I won't make her cry, especially not over something this stupid."


	17. Hands

**I was excited for this prompt, to be honest. **

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Hands

Winry liked his hands, both of them. They were calloused and rough and much larger in comparison to hers, and she loved them. It was never because of the aesthetic appeal, or the fact they were the same hands that had once saved Amestris, not in the slightest.

It was the way those same hands held hers whenever things got still and quiet. It was the feeling of his hands sweeping back her hair when he thought she was asleep. Maybe he did it to get it out of her face, maybe he did it to get a better look at her, she never asked.

It was how he'd cradled her cheek the night he and Alphonse came home; after everyone had gone to sleep save the two of them and all she could do was cry tears of relief. It was how delicate he managed to be when he'd simply hugged her, his blessed hands moving to sift through her hair and settle at the base of her spine as she sobbed into his shoulder.

It was the way he held her face the first time he ever kissed her. It was how his fingers danced lightly along her jaw as he pulled away, his eyes half lidded and his lips stumbling over the words 'I love you.'

There was a lot of reasons Winry Rockbell liked his hands, but it was never because of what they did for the world, it was for the smaller things they did that he never thought she'd notice.


	18. Alternate: Golden

**Okay so, the prompt list I'm using has several prompts that had (Alternate) and I finally got to one of them, so have a edwin au where Ed gets drafted and has to leave Winry. Because _obviously_ I'm just a ray of _goddamn _sunshine. **

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Alternate- Golden

All she saw was gold. The army-green duffel he had slung over his shoulders wasn't of her concern, nor were the purple circles under his eyes or even the angry red cut snaking out from under his jaw. All that mattered was the amber of his eyes and the spun gold shade of his hair. The duffel was dropped onto the ground like a burden long forgotten the moment her name left his chapped lips, and Winry Rockbell slowly realized she was crying.

He stooped to hold her, deciding not to bother with the words sticking and dying in his throat as her fingers curled into the folds of his uniform. They crumpled downwards to the white tile floor together, Winry letting a sob tear from her lungs only to be muffled by Ed's chest. Her breath hitched and every breath she took felt like fire and shards of glass in her lungs, but for some reason it didn't matter because Ed was there and tangible.

For nine months he had been nothing but letters and grainy phone calls from unlisted numbers. For nine months she'd dreaded picking up the phone or answering the door out of sheer fear of him going from those things to a eulogy in the town paper. For nine months, she had waited for the military to finally give him back to her.

Winry had a reason her favorite colour was gold, and after nine long months, he had finally come back home to her.


	19. Questions

**Got caught up in something last night, so here's the update.**

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Questions

Edward Elric always knew he had a knack for getting into situations which required some wriggling around in order to squirm out of, but none had ever involved Lieutenant Hawkeye.

Hawkeye had always been like his saving grace; the person who usually, and always casually, managed to get Mustang off his back about one thing or another. She was a stone pillar of advice as well as a admirable ally; he had come to the wise-eyed woman for advice in the past on multiple occasions. She was reliable as well as trustworthy, considering none of what he said to her ever met Mustang's ears, thank the heavens.

Even with his utmost respect for her, her question about his affection for Winry had absolutely ruined his ability to ask her for help for a short while after, considering he couldn't look her in the eye without seeing that glint of knowing in her serious brown eyes. Of course, her awkward question was also the only thing that caught him off guard enough to realize that his protectiveness for his mechanic wasn't just leftover from childhood, and he counted his blessings for that conversation in private.

But nothing really prepared him for the impromptu advice session that took place a year after his permanent return to Resembool.

Ed had expected to be called back to Central to finalize his military retirement papers eventually, so the phone call from the now-General Mustang was no surprise to him or anyone in the Rockbell home. They had been decent enough to not bother him with it for a year and 4 days, but it seemed everyone needed to finish paperwork, even the Fullmetal Alchemist.

The trip would most likely take a day and a half, and he would be back home by the afternoon of the next day. No rough or tough tumbling involved.

_At least not physically,_ Ed pondered as he tried to figure out a casual way to approach conversation with the Lieutenant. As welcoming as she actually was, Ed always had trouble speaking to her when "General" Mustang wasn't around to intervene and bring up a topic himself. Even then Riza didn't speak often, which only worsened his situation. Deciding to dive in, Ed looked up to watch the movement of her pen as he spoke.

"Thank you for handling things so late into the night for me, Lieutenant." Ed said politely, thankful for the warm teacup clasped in his hands and the quiet atmosphere of Hawkeye's apartment. She had offered to speed up the withdrawal process by completing the forms early so they could get approved sooner, and Ed leapt at the chance to go back home the next morning instead of having to mope around Central until they got approved around noon.

"Call me Riza, you aren't in the military anymore, and I think we can safely say we're friends." She replied evenly, checking over the last of the papers before sliding them over to the edge of the table. She exchanged them for her own teacup, and she took a sip before setting it firmly on the table. Ed pressed back a feeling of dread as an elegant eyebrow arched up, a gentle smile following. Riza Hawkeye smiling was a rare thing, and it equally terrified him and made him want to flee. He nervously lifted his tea to his lips, waiting for the dreaded question.

"So, how are things with your mechanic?"

Ed nearly spit his tea back into his cup, despite the fact he had expected just as much from her in full. Riza reminded him slightly of Teacher, all business up front, with good intentions and smiles behind the scenes.

"Great- Amazing actually-" Ed stammered, grasping at words that wouldn't make him seem like a lovestruck idiot. Things had been perfect like he said, save the fact he was too chicken to pull anything but a kiss on her.

Riza's brow rose higher, disappearing into her bangs and Ed pursed his lips stubbornly. He felt stupid, asking the Lieutenant such a stupid thing. Given, she had offered him solid advice about women before, but nothing this terribly awkward had come up. Swallowing his pride, Ed made a valiant effort to ignore the rising heat in his face before blurting out his horribly embarrassing topic.

"I'm worried I'm gonna be a terrible lover."

He hadn't expected Hawkeye to laugh or poke any sort of fun, but the relief when she simply took another calm sip of her tea remained. Setting her cup down, Riza met his eyes, a small smile turning the corners of her lips upwards.

"I can give you three points of advice, Edward." Riza said evenly, folding her hands comfortably on the table. Ed shifted his gaze awkwardly to the door for a split second, worried he was in for an embarrassing time, but if Hawkeye had noticed she made no indication.

"The first is that it's all a learning curve, so pay attention to her. It will be much easier for her to enjoy herself if you're attentive." _Easy enough,_ Ed mumbled inwardly.

"The second piece of advice I can offer is that time is of the essence. Don't rush into it or through it." Riza shifted to wave her hand, her nails glinting in the glare of the light above the table, and Ed nodded, grateful she was blessedly non-graphic and honest.

She put up three fingers, and the other blond was surprised all of her advice had fit into a simple 2 minute speech and not a 45 minute monologue. "The last thing I can tell you is that you should do whatever make her feel comfortable with the situation. Hold her hand, say her name, tell her you love her. I'm sure it sounds typical to you, Edward, but it's still valid." Ed, who had taken to staring into his half-empty tea cup, lifted his head to make eye contact.

"Actually, it doesn't sound typical. Thank you Lieuten- Riza." Ed stood up, feeling a lot better than he had when he'd come in with the question weighing on his mind. "I'm thankful for the advice, really. And thank you for finishing my retirement paperwork."

Riza stood to join him, giving him a single nod as he turned towards the door. "It's no issue. Have a good night, Edward."

He's only a little ways away from her apartment door when she calls for him from the doorway, Hayate weaving between her legs in a blur of black and white. "I'm glad you came and asked for advice. Winry is lucky to have someone who cares about her as much as you do."

Ed gave her a smile, once again thankful he went to her instead of Havoc or Mustang. "Thank you again, Ms. Hawkeye."

* * *

**I need basically everything having to do with awkward Ed going to Hawkeye for lady advice. All of it. **


	20. Posture

**Sorry this is being posted at 1 AM eastern time. I was busy making pie and hugging a dumb boy today. I'm trying a new tense in this one. Listened to Death Cab for Cutie the entire time, so be thankful it's not sad. I usually write sad shit to DCFC**

* * *

Posture

He was drying away the water from his hands with a rag when he walks into the living room, glad to finally be finished with repainting the Rockbell's "Auto Mail" sign. He's about to grumble aloud about how often he fleetingly considered burning the thing while he was working on making the sun bleached white letters new again, but Ed stops when he sees Winry on the couch.

She's on her stomach with her face in a couch pillow, her hair spread in a spiderweb fashion over her shoulders. His stomach drops as he has a dreadful feeling that she had to be either crying, dead, or ill to be so still. It's thankfully dispersed as she lifts her head drowsily to see who was causing the creak of the hardwood. Her hand, which had previously hung limply off the side of the couch, lifted to wave cheerily as she mumbled out a greeting.

The wince that flashed across her features didn't go unnoticed, and Ed furrowed his eyebrows at her pained expression. "You feelin alright, Win?"

Winry only ducked her face back into the couch pillow, her hand and arm folding under the pillow to prop it up. He hears her mumble a response faintly, and Ed moves to plop down on end of the couch that she wasn't sprawled out on. "Repeat that?"

Winry lifted her head again, her voice quick and short. "My back and neck are giving me trouble and it hurts to move, Ed."

"Oh."

A few quiet moments pass, and Ed can hear Al playing with Den outside, and Ed lets a smile sneak onto his face. With his body back, he had taken a liking to entertaining the dog as a source of activity. It was good, considering he was still too weak to spar, but still needed some kind of physical therapy to regain muscle.

Winry shifting to get up snaps him back to the present, and without thinking, he lays a wide palm against the small of her back. "Don't get up if your back hurts, dummy."

"I have things to do! I can't lounge around forever, I have customers you know!" She retorts, and Ed only rolls his eyes and leans over to slide his hand farther up her spine.

"Stop fighting and just lay down! Your bad posture is probably why your back hurts in the first place."

"Fine! If you're so stubborn on making me waste time, then so be it." Winry mutters, pretending the warmth in her face wasn't from the feeling of his hot hand against the curve of her back. Granny had always said Ed was 'perpetually feverish' as she put it, and it seemed she was right.

Ed smirks at the back of her head, ignoring her final protest as she slumped back into the cushions. He doesn't remove his hand, and after a moment he rubs a soothing circle between her shoulderblades in an attempt to relieve the tension in her upper back. He knew if he didn't do something to sweeten the deal of being lazy on the couch, she'd get up the moment he left.

When she relaxes Ed takes it as a clear for him to keep going, and he isn't surprised when she returns to dozing and relaxes completely under his hand. Satisfied, Ed rose from the couch to lean over and sweep her hair away from her shoulders gently, gold eyes lingering over the shadow of her lashes on her cheeks.

He's turning away when Winry's drowsy voice speaks, nearly scaring him out of his skin.

"My posture's not _that_ bad, you know."


	21. Headlines

***kicks chair***

* * *

Headlines

It's midnight when he calls her, the shrill ring of the telephone dragging her from her spot in front of her desk to troop down the stairs and get the phone before it woke the other people in the house. She answers with a fatigued hello, uncurling the coiled phone cord with her index finger as a short silence held over the line.

Finally Ed's voice registered on the other line, low and tired. "Winry?"

Said girl shifted to set her hip against the wall, cradling the curve of the handset against her ear. It was nice to hear his voice, even if he did sound weary and worried. "Yeah Ed, it's me."

She could have sworn she heard him let out a breath of relief, but from the muffled sound of it, she supposed he covered the transmitter with his hand. "Are you okay?" Were the next words that tumbled out of the receiver and Winry blinked, surprised at the abrupt question.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just saw a few customers today and went back to my room for the night. Why?" She answered quietly, slightly puzzled as to why he called just to ask her that particular question. He never really called to ask if she was safe unless something was seriously wrong on his end. "Are you okay? Is something getting stirred up in Central?"

"No, no. I was just- I had a bad feeling." Ed paused and she heard him sigh, the sound staticky over the open line. "I was being paranoid. I'm sorry for calling so late."

Winry shifted the phone to her other ear. "Alright. Goodnight Ed. Don't forget to sleep too, okay?"

He hummed in response before hanging up, his side of the line going dead. Winry pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed it gently back into it's cradle before she began her trek upstairs, worry in her chest and the timbre of his voice in her ears.

In a hotel room in Central, Ed stared down the bleak newsprint, his hold on the receiver tightening. He should have known she was fine; Winry knew how to handle herself. Sure, guys in the Valley were always loosening screws to see her, but she'd proven herself perfectly capable after punching some guy's lights out for wanting her to work on something other than his arm.

But even with that knowledge, his heart had dropped at the headline: 'Young Woman Murdered in Rush Valley.'


	22. Calming

**I think Winry would have a really pretty singing voice to be honest. I don't think she'd use it ever save to hum tunes and sing lullabies to her kids, but y'all can't kick this headcanon out of my cold dead body even if you wanted to. **

* * *

Calming

Winry liked to hum, it brought her some kind of solace that Ed couldn't decipher and had no plans to ponder. She hummed while she tightened bolts on his automail, she hummed while her eyes lazily flickered over words on pages, she hummed while she rummaged for pots to make dinner. Usually it went unnoticed, it brought no harm and was definitely not an annoyance, but Ed always stopped, even if only for a moment, to listen.

He first really noticed her habit when she leaning over his busted arm one summer night, the situation still and boring enough for Ed to linger on the sound of the crickets outside. The sky had long darkened, leaving the night and it's inhabitants to it's own devices, and Ed took to staring out the guest room window as she toiled away.

It'd started soft at first, the tune of the old folk song quiet in the air. He didn't become aware of it until he recognized the melody, but Ed refused to turn and look at her in fear she would stop. It was lilting and pretty, and he fleetingly wondered how beautiful her singing voice must be. He'd never in a thousand years ask her to sing, but the thought remained.

He didn't really recall when he fell asleep, but Winry's gentle hand against his forehead woke him up. "Ed, you're arm is done. I'll reconnect the nerves when you're ready."

He blamed the blush on the fact he'd just woken up, but he noticed every time she hummed after that.


	23. Alright

**finals are hard and i am dying**

* * *

Alright

She woke up to the sound of him breathing, sharp and amplified in the still quiet of the dark. His breaths shuddered out into the open air of their bedroom, and she could tell he was already awake and in the process of trying to calm his heart rate. Winry shifted to roll over, the bedsprings creaking in response to the transfer of weight, and through the dull light of the porchlight she could see his eyes flash to her face before back down again.

Moving to lay her hand over his, she intertwined them together, feeling his pulse beat fast and frantic through the skin of his fingers. His palm dwarfed hers greatly, but Winry just squeezed his hand tighter, listening to his breathing even out into a steady and slow rhythm. After a moment Ed made eye contact and squeezed back, the rough pads of his fingertips grazing the tops of her knuckles.

The nightmares seemed to be more common this time of year, considering it marked another year since his mother's death, and springtime brought a kind of sorrow for Ed that she only halfway understood and did her best to quell. He never let it show but she knew it was there, and she knew he would always open up to her when he really needed it. He would come back one way or another and be alright, just like he always had, and for this Winry was grateful.

And as he leaned over to kiss her forehead, she realized that as long as he was alright, she was too.


	24. Bored (gift)

**this fic is M for a reason, kids. **

* * *

Bored

"How the hell do you just sit around like this all the time?"

Winry pursed her lips, screwing up her face at the automail diagram gracing the page she was reading. Ed continued his bored rambles, moving on to the topic of how it was cold, claiming it 'shouldn't be this cold in October' before finally settling on grumbling about how he'd finished reading all of his books and had nothing to do with Pinako gone for the weekend. Usually she gave him assorted chores to keep him preoccupied, but she had a customer in another town and was gone for the week. Al had accompanied her to get a feel for travel, and that left Ed completely optionless.

That left the two alone in the living room, Ed bored and whiney and Winry poised to rip his throat out.

"Winry, are you listening to me?" Ed asked, sounding vaguely like a mix between a kicked puppy and his usual stubborn self, and Winry snapped her mechanics book shut, the sharp sound making Den jump from her spot in the corner of the living room.

Standing up from her spot on the couch beside him, she tossed the book onto the coffee table and turned to face him, her glare potent enough to cut down an army of hardened soldiers. Ed had the decency to look sheepish under her gaze, and he was opening his mouth to give her a half assed apology by the time she decided exactly how to shut him up and keep him quiet.

Winry swung her leg over his lap to straddle his hips in one swift movement, setting her weight down on his thighs as Ed scrambled for words in his surprise. He only managed a mangled stutter of her name before Winry cut him off, her mouth working against his in a way that the ex-alchemist nearly considered sinful. He responded after the shock wore off, cupping the back of her head to draw her closer.

Ed moved his hands to settle on her waist, palms wide and hot through the fabric of her button up shirt, and Winry moved to undo his ponytail and toss the rubber band onto the floor behind the couch. She liked it more when it was down. Carding her hands through his hair, she pulled away for air before he caught her lips again. The kiss felt hot enough to sear away all the lingering cold in Winry's fingers, and she pulled him in closer, shifting in his lap to grind against his pelvis.

The blond gasped then, tearing away from the kiss to grip her hips. "Holy fuck Win-"

Winry smirked at his reaction as she started to pepper his jaw with kisses, reveling in how he flushed hot under her touch. She could play him like a violin given the chance, and feeling the roll of his hips against hers, it seems the opportunity had arrived.

Pressing a hot kiss to his neck, she moved to unbutton his shirt, nimble fingers working quickly over the clasps. Seems her original plan of kissing him senseless and going to finish her book wasn't really going to happen. Satisfied that by the time she'd gotten to the last button Ed had a nice mark on the underside of his jaw and she could feel his approval straining against his pants, Winry pulled away to watch his face as she pressed harder against him. Ed threw his head back, a throaty groan tearing from his throat.

He moved to kiss her and Winry humoured him, not missing the way one of his hands slid around to glide up her spine and settle between her shoulder blades. Winry pulled away to mumble something, feeling his breath fan out over her lips. "I could leave you high and dry right now since you wouldn't let me read."

"You wouldn't." Was Edward's response as he leaned in to kiss her again, and Winry wondered if he knew how lucky he was, because he was right.

* * *

**dedicated to my favorite and most loyal reviewer ninjamidori! You always make me happy with your reviews and they never fail to make me inspired to write more for this fic. It's your kind comments that make me stay up until 3:30 AM on a Saturday just to finish a prompt. Thank you so much, you're super radical!**

**Edit: Don't write almost-smut at 4am on a Saturday, there will be mistakes and up to 30 casualties. I fixed all of them here (I think) and edited out some of the flow issues. If you've already read it, I'm so sorry you had to read my 3am brainchild, which was almost completely unedited. **


	25. Pretty

Pretty

She was toiling away, focused and too absorbed in her task to worry about the cold seeping into the room through the cracked window or the low hum lacing the air from her own throat. It was a manual check up and plate readjustment, something the two of them had done a thousand times, but this time Ed couldn't keep himself from stealing glances at her through the corner of his vision.

He couldn't decipher why everything felt so different. Maybe it was because she had her hair down? He let himself take a yet another quick look at her before eliminating the idea. Winry had her hair down around him tons of times, why would be any different now? He furrowed his eyebrows. There was something he was missing, something that was so obvious that when he finally realized it he would be so irritated with himself for overlooking it.

Ed turned the idea over in his mind for a bit, sneaking inquisitive glances at the mechanic every few moments to make sure it wasn't one thing or another. Finally Winry spoke up, her gaze not leaving one of the plates making up his shoulder. Ed nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of her voice, terrified at the prospect of her noticing the way he'd been looking at her the entire evening.

"Ed can you do me a favor and twist your arm just a tad?" She leaned over to watch, eyebrows furrowing as he did as she'd asked. Her mouth quirked to one side irritably and Ed eyed her warily as she hopped off her seat to retrieve a different screwdriver from a bag on the desk.

"Hold this." She mumbled before walking around to drag her chair in front of him. Taking the tool back after she'd readjusted herself atop her stool, Winry continued her concentrated search for imperfections. Ed noticed her focused pout, another one of her absentminded habits that never failed to appear when she was particularly invested in something. He was lingering on the heart shape her lips formed when she huffed out a breath, breaking the silence and snapping Ed out of the reverie he had fallen into.

"I'm gonna move your arm to get a better look, something is snarled in between two of your deltoid plates." Ed had little time to react before her fingers were wrapped around his wrist, and he leaned forward to let her maneuver his arm as she pleased. He did not, however, expect her to plant his hand right on her upper thigh, and he felt his facial temperature rise to scorching temperatures in a matter of literal seconds.

Winry was completely and utterly unfazed, obviously not noticing his growing flush, which had already spread to blanket his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. She leaned over him to get a better look, and Ed made a feeble attempt to count the freckles on his arm and pray she wouldn't notice how flustered he'd gotten.

She fiddled with his arm at a closer range for an agonizingly long four minutes, gently prying a mass of silk white hair from the spot where it had tangled in between the layered metal making up his shoulder. Winry chirped a happy "got it!" as she excavated it, and Ed quickly recognized it as a bit of the plume from the top of Al's armour. It dangled from her fingers in a jumble of white, and he damned it to the depths of hell for those four devastatingly long minutes.

"Looks like I just needed a better angle!" She commented lightly, and Ed snatched his palm away from her leg like it had burned him. Winry remained oblivious to his discomfort, and he counted that as a blessing among curses.

Giving her a nearly-believable excuse as to why he had to leave, Ed nonchalantly bolted from the room, and Winry sighed before returning the long process of returning her tools to her bag. She wondered briefly if he had a fever, considering his cheeks were splashed red and he seemed eager to dash off at the first opportunity, and she makes a note to ask Al to watch his health. She couldn't have him falling ill, not with all his travelling and most-likely reckless behavior.

Ed realizes later on into the night that nothing, in fact, had been different about Winry; he had just taken the chance to truly look at her for the first time since they were 13. He reaches his second conclusion after yet another failed attempt to fall asleep, and it has him lying awake for another thirty minutes.

Winry Rockbell, girl mechanic and certified gearhead, had grown up to be much prettier than he'd ever imagined, and it scared the shit out of him.

* * *

**flustered ed realizes that yes, winry rockbell is in fact a super mega cute girl below all the joint oil and grease marring her cheeks.**

**also, before i forget. ninjamidori, BuggyNess, and Harryswoman: you're all super cool, don't forget that! **


	26. Friend

Friend

The tears were relentless, streaking her cheeks and dropping onto her hands. Winry made no effort to knowledge them or stop them, only letting them fall and leave cold tracks on her cheeks. She didn't register Ed settling down beside her until she felt his hand between her shoulder blades, a small comfort that did much more for the ache in her chest than she'd anticipated. If it had been any other time with any other person, Winry would have been embarrassed for sobbing so openly, but Ed was the only one in the room with her, and that made it much different. Ed never made her feel bad for her tears. He was kind in the quiet way, letting herself break down without remorse and unobtrusively helping her back up after it was all over.

Finally she managed to push her voice from her sore throat, the words uneven and cut off by repressed sobs. "She was a good dog."

"I know Win."

A fresh wave of tears obscured her vision of the black fur under her hands at the soft sound of his voice, and she took a shuddering breath before ducking her head. Den had been the last gift ever given to her by her parents, a promise to come home and a friend to keep her company until they did. And that's exactly what she'd done: kept Winry company and been her friend despite everything, despite an accident with a hay wagon and the loss of her left foreleg, despite Winry's year long departure to Rush Valley, despite age and sore limbs. Den had seen the death of her parents, Ed and Al's return, and everything in between.

Winry supposed that's why it was so hard to let her go.


	27. Punishment

Punishment

He knew the minute he saw it he wasn't coming out of that room unscathed. It was a perfect opportunity and he knew he had to take the chance or he would never forgive himself for letting it pass him by.

Winry was working, Alphonse was dozing in the next room over, Pinako was in town; the scene was perfect, absolutely flawless. The source of his temptation was latticed with slants of light through the window, making it all the more enticing. It was absolutely beautiful, worth all of the words in the dictionary and then a couple more.

The freshly baked apple pie on the table was his saving grace, his light at the end of the tunnel, and Edward Elric was sure he could wax poetic bullshit about the pastry until his dying breath, it looked that damn fantastic.

_That's why,_ He thought as he opened the silverware drawer for his weapon of choice, _I have to do it. _

He was halfway through his sinful deed when Winry walked casually through the doorway for a glass of water, and Ed, seeing the disbelief and glint of fury behind her eyes, put the fork down slowly.

Her lips parting in bewilderment, she struggled for words to let him know how close to death he really was. "Edward Elric. I cannot believe-"

Her voice chilled him to the bone, and silence fell like a blanket for several god forsaken moments. Ed had originally thought he could get away with eating half the pie with only a bruise and a long lecture, but he was sure now that he would be lucky to get out with his life. He'd survived the Promised Day and getting his brother's body back, but he wasn't sure he was going to survive the mortal injuries his mechanic was going to lay on him then.

The sound of the silver plated utensil making contact with the pie tin was the only sound that broke the silence before Ed leapt from his chair, throwing it backwards in his haste to get away. Winry tore after him, realizing he was going for an escape route through the back door and if she didn't catch him then, he would be half a mile down the road by the time she managed to make it down the steps.

Thankful the door opened outwards, Ed lunged for the doorknob, turning it with enough force to sprain his wrist. However, he didn't realize how badly screwed he really was until he felt his automail leg connect with the doorframe, sending him sprawling over the back porch. A loud crack echoed through his head as he hit the ground, along with the sound of metal twinkling over the hardwood, and Ed decided that it was over. It was time to accept death and face oblivion.

Winry's footsteps slowed and stopped behind him, and he couldn't tell if she was going to explode into laughter or just plain explode from the way the silence held over. Finally she started to laugh, the sound starting out as snickers and evolving into a full blown fit of mirth. Ed pursed his lips and rested his head against his forearm, deciding that letting her laugh away her anger at the expense of his pride was better than not living to see another day.

Finally she calmed, and he saw her bend to rest on her heels through his peripheral vision. "First you wreck my pie, and now you wreck my leg."

"The pie was worth it." He mumbled, and he saw Winry smile. Seeing her smile was worth the pain and humiliation too, but Ed would never admit that out loud; he still had _some_ pride left.

"Good, because I'm taking your leg for repairs, and you can either figure out a way to get back inside or call for Alphonse to help you up."

He felt her eject his leg from the docking port with nimble fingers, and he lifted his head to gape at her. "You're kidding."

"Nope." She straightened, his automail limb under her arm and a smile on her face, and Ed could only stare in disbelief as she turned on a heel and walked inside, the screen door shutting behind her with a quiet creak.

Resting his head against his arm again, Ed made a mental note that no pastry was worth the quiet, ruthless wrath of Winry Rockbell.

* * *

**i got this idea in the shower and let me tell you: edward elric doing stupid shit is my lifeblood. **


	28. Keys

Keys

"Play your majors." Winry ordered, her clipboard settled haphazardly on her hip as she leaned against the side of the large instrument. It was a part of the manual checkup process, something she did every time he came back to visit her, and as much as Ed hated it, it was important.

Ed knew this, but it never ceased to bother him. The clipboard on her hip drove him up the wall, and every time he looked up she was jotting down useless little notes on it. He huffed a weary sigh, fingers hovering over the ivory. "Really Win? I've already played two excerpts of Debussy's Nocturnes. What else do you need to check?"

"Your dexterity isn't something to joke about." Winry retorted, lips pursing in a stern line. "Besides, it keeps you fresh, you shouldn't be complaining."

Pressing a few keys, Ed mumbled under his breath before turning to face the piano. He played a few test notes before launching into a quick repertoire of the first seven scales he ever learned, fingers fast and light against the black and whites of the piano. The arpeggios flowed easily under his fingers, and he raced up and down the length of keyboard with an oiled ease. He slowed when he approached the last four, careful to not slip up and make a fool of himself, or worse, make Winry have another thing to meddle with later.

Pressing the pedal to make the last note of his set ring out, he lifted his hands from the keys and plopped them uselessly in his lap, glancing at Winry. She was clacking her pen against the top of the clipboard, her bottom lip caught between her teeth and her eyes glued to the paper in front of her. Ed had the sudden urge to slam all the keys down in frustration, but he averted his glare to the fall board.

The fact she didn't listen bothered him, and the fact he was upset about something so stupid and childish bothered him even more. What a stupid thing to be upset about, Winry was just doing her job after all. But the idea that he relearned the piano with his new hand just for the skill to be used as a dexterity test pulled a nerve. His mother had loved seeing him play the piano, giving him lessons when he was young, and for her lessons to be reduced to a general box on the check-up list was a bitter truth he didn't want to face.

Winry's clipboard hitting the top of the piano nearly scared Ed out of his skin, and he glanced up at her warily. "What's the news, doctor?" He said sarcastically, and Winry gave him a look.

"Everything's tip top, save one thing." She paused to move to the side of the bench where he wasn't sitting and sat herself down, and Ed resisted the urge to look surprised. She usually stood off to the side to watch his hands and to avoid crowding him, and her presence so close to him made the tips of his ears go hot. He quickly studied her profile for ideas to what she was going to say before she turned towards him. "You always sound mechanical when you play, and outside of these tests I've never heard you play."

Red had begun to nip at her cheeks as she spoke, and Winry turned her gaze shyly to look at the piece of music he always set out but never used. Ed's eyes followed her, and his lips parted in surprise. "Do you want me to play something? For you?"

Winry tensed at the second query and she nodded, the motion jerky and timid. The corners of Ed's lips twitched into a small smile, but he quickly managed to paint a stoic expression back on as he set his hands back onto the keys. He started a slow chord with his left hand, quickly beginning a slow harmony to the melody he started with his right.

He was playing randomly, pulling out chords and melodies from other pieces he knew sounded pretty and focusing on bringing them together. It felt different, having Winry beside him. He sped up just a tad, and he felt the music begin to come more naturally as he went.

Ed tapered off when he hit the three minute mark, and finished with a mellow, lingering chord. Turning to face Winry, he found himself looking at her profile again. She was dragging a hand across her eyes, and Ed felt a twinge of panic as he realized she was dashing away tears.

"W-Win-" He sputtered for something to say, but Winry stopped him before he could go as far to apologize or ask what was wrong.

"I'm not sad. I just got a little overwhelmed is all."

She set her hands in her lap and looked at him, and Ed could see the watery hue of her eyes. "Overwhelmed by what? Was it too sad or something?"

Winry laughed, the sound bright and contrasting to the way the room had darkened to match the dusky sunset outside. "No, dummy. I'm just happy." She slid out of the bench, rising to full height. Ed watched her face carefully, eyes flicking from her cheekbones, her lips, and back to meet her gaze. The silence held before Winry spoke again, voice quiet.

"Thank you, Ed. It was beautiful." He watched her as she turned to leave, too speechless to give a proper response, and after he'd set the fall board down over the keys and put the music back inside the bench did he realize the reason she made him play so much.

* * *

**drown me in edwin. finals are over and im going to get carpal tunnel writing so much about these two.**


	29. Rain

**This holiday season I learned that my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend is very kind and pretty and much cooler than me, and that you shouldn't eat your feelings because the end result is you vomiting up 4 chocolate oranges while crying into the toilet alone at 4am. **

**happy holidays**

* * *

Rain

It was quiet and static, every drop hitting the panes of the wide windows. The drops slid in uneven sheets down the glass before descending down to the earth and Ed found the near-silence calming. He liked rain, he always did. People had a tendency to quiet when it rained, as if rain was a sign to settle down with a book or mindless project and enjoy the quiet background noise as they read or worked.

Winry always liked to digest other mechanic's notebooks or blueprints when it rained, Ed noticed, but then again, he'd smack himself if he ever saw her reading anything outside of her line of work. He, however, preferred to doze during storms, and he'd found over the course of his marriage with Winry that the best time to catch z's was when it rained.

That was mostly because it was always a perfect opportunity to rest his head in her lap as she read. Though he would never say it aloud, the feeling of Winry's hand in his hair and the sound of the raindrops striking the windows was the most serene thing he could imagine falling asleep to, and coupled with the fact Winry liked to hum as she read, it was perfect.

Springtime in Resembool was always a pleasant time, if only for all the rain-showers.

* * *

**HAPPY CALM PROMPT **

**I'll have like 4 chapters out tomorrow, so be ready. Also! Thanks for the large influx of reviews recently! I've been getting more than usual and it's very nice to check on my phone when I'm down and see new reviews. **


	30. Tired

**boopety boop bop shiggety dow wow I came up with this in the shower after thinking about this one cute comic I saw earlier this week: here it is if you wanna look at it. My ficlet doesn't match the comic's ending, but whatever I suppose.**

**remove the spaces (note: you don't need the http part to access the blog, tumblr automatically adds it.)**

** pikachewbites. tumblr post / 70319018393/ close-eye-by-futen-ann**

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Tired

He woke up with his throat dry and ports aching. They always ached when it was cold, and considering it was they were just beginning to turn the corner to winter, he supposed he was in for a lot of dull throbbing. Rubbing the scarred skin connecting his docking port and his shoulder, Ed sat up and threw his feet over the edge of the bed, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

Trooping down the stairs, Ed resisted the urge to yawn again. He was just beginning to turn the corner to the kitchen when he saw the slant of light blocking his path down the hallway, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he stopped in front of the doorframe. Something was off about the that one particular detail. Garfiel was touchy about leaving lights on, and Ed knew he hadn't been the culprit considering he only went into the workroom when Winry was there, and she always turned the light off after she left.

Leaning in just a tad to see past the door, Ed glanced inside to quell his curiosity.

He saw flaxen blonde hair, and his shoulders slumped. She was working herself into the ground again. Pressing a hand to the side of his face in exasperation, he opened the door the rest of the way to gain her attention. "You're gonna die early if you work yourself like this all the time." He mumbled, and he noticed Winry jump at the sound of his voice.

She turned and Ed assessed how tired she looked with a note of contempt. Winry had the decency to look guilty, and he gave her another look. "Go to sleep, your customers won't appreciate a tired and half dead mechanic."

"I won't be half-dead. And I think you're the only customer that really worries about how much I sleep." She retorted, picking up her pencil again.

Ed reached down to lay his hand over hers. "You need to sleep, not slave over another blueprint." Ignoring her protests, he guided her upwards from the chair, leading her away from her workbench and down the hall. "You really are stubborn." He mumbled, and Winry made a sound of disapproval in response as he opened the door to her room.

Sitting down on the edge of her bed, Winry pouted before catching his gaze. "Fine. I'll sleep. Why do you care so much, anyways?"

Ed froze, lips parting in surprise. He tore his eyes off hers to awkwardly glance sidelong at the door, and after a second that felt longer than it should have, he breathed out a deep sigh and moved to lean over her. "I just do. Don't think about it too much."

Kissing her forehead, he pulled away, hoping maybe that would suffice as an answer.

* * *

**I made a super-radical FMA blog and all of you should totally follow it. Theres a link to my main/personal blog on there too, just in case you're wondering what I do in my free time. I have queues on both of them so they're always active. There's a link to it on my profile as well. **

** edwinrys. tumblr. com**

**Sorry for all the urls and long author's notes. Next chapter will be up later tonight, and probably two more after that.**


	31. Happy

**well, that was a really strange and short hiatus. I rang in the new year watching FMA:B, got extremely ill, skipped 50% of the first week of semester 2, faked illness so me and my mom could get mexican food before the lunch rush, and got pre-accepted onto my Aca-Deca team.**

* * *

_Happy_

Light blue was a nice colour on Winry.

It complimented the smattering of freckles over her shoulders, and was the same saturation as the light tan on her arms. Rush Valley had given her a healthy colour to her skin, the hot sun and constant heat making her complexion blemish free yet completely covered in freckles. Ed liked them, and he also liked the smear of blue paint he had expertly laid over her shoulder.

The sky blue shade was marked in a neat line over her skin and the sleeve of the shirt he lent her, and he did not mourn the loss of the black undershirt considering the rewarding aspects of his terrible joke. Winry had nearly leapt five feet into the air at the touch of the cold paintbrush, and the gaping surprise on her face was compensation enough.

"You didn't." Winry murmured, a note of disbelief lacing the low tone of her voice, and Ed belted out a laugh at her expression.

"I did."

The blonde glanced up from where she was gripping the wet sleeve of her shirt, the desire for revenge setting into her bones like a curse. The paintbrush in her other hand had been forgotten until then, and Winry's eyes flickered from it back to her fiance quickly, the fleeting glance not going unnoticed by Ed, who's grin had begun to die. Ed only had a moment to react before she lunged, and he stumbled back with her.

They both hit the floor with a thump, Winry vying for revenge and Ed hoping for a swift punishment. She scored a nice mark down the line of his throat and Ed burst into another bout of laughter at the cold, wet feeling. It caught the chill of the wind rushing through the window like a magnet and for some reason the sensation made the entire situation more laughable. The paintbrush, which had been re-dipped in the bucket of paint several moments before, hit the paper they had laid down with a sopping smack as Winry tossed it aside, having gained sufficient retribution.

She had joined him in his laughter by then, the sound bouncing off the walls of the empty room and echoing back to them just as loud as it had originally been. They continued like that for a few moments, content in their mirth and unmindful of what little progress they had made on the nursery walls.

The paint had dried against their skin by the time Ed reached up to brush back the hair from Winry's face, letting his hands linger against the skin of her jawline as he drank in everything.

The summer light filtering in through the window, the smell of paint, Winry's skin under his hands. Everything felt exactly where it was supposed to be, and he breathed in, the breath full and reviving. It shuddered out in the form of words, and he noticed Winry's eyes flicker open to meet his, her blue irises hazy against her black lashes.

"I'm happy I met you."

* * *

**District competition is next thursday, so I might not be on because I'll be sobbing over my resource guides in preparation, but I got on to give you guys a couple things I had written in notes and transcribed over to document.**


	32. Wonder

_Wonder_

Her eyes were glued to the dark sky above them, and he turned his gaze upwards to see what she was so invested in. The stars were brighter than usual, bright pinpricks against the blanket of black. He understood why she liked them, they were so far away yet you could still see their brightness, a testament that even space was close by when you thought about it.

Ed was tracing the Orion constellation when she spoke, her voice pensive. "You know, I spent a long time wondering what I would have done if you hadn't come back from Central after the Promised Day."

Winry's eyes didn't leave the sky, and Ed sought for words he didn't have before giving into silence. She spoke again after a moment, her eyes flicking to him and to the hills in front of them and Ed took the chance to look at her properly, an unexpected shock coloring his stare as he noticed how faraway she looked. The stars felt closer than she was right then, and she was close enough for him to touch her hand.

"I thought about it for a bit, wondering if I could return to what I loved doing if you weren't there to bug me about it and show up unexpectedly with stuff for me to fix."

Winry paused, her breath hitching just slightly and Ed pretended not to notice for her sake. His chest ached, and after a moment he realized the feeling was longing. "I realized I couldn't. I'd maybe become a doctor like my parents, or open a shop somewhere downtown, but I don't think I ever would have been able to go back-"

"-not without you there."

* * *

**edwin is the last thing i think about before i fall asleep 99% of the time. **


	33. First

_First_

It had been pelting rain when he told her, the sound deafening against the panes of her window and just as loud against the roof. She'd been fiddling with the screws in his leg, her frustration with the damages growing more potent with every passing moment. Ed could feel her getting upset with it, and he thanked all the stars above he'd gotten back his other arm. If she was upset with him wrecking her leg, she would kill him for utterly destroying the arm she'd slaved over.

He didn't blame her, Winry probably spent the most time on his automail, not only because he broke it often but because she cared. His arm was her pride and joy, the epitome of her best work, and she let him use and break it over and over again because she_ cared. _

But the part of it that had really terrified Ed was that he loved her. He loved every blonde strand of hair, every concentrated glance, every freckle that speckled her shoulders. The realization had been easy yet sudden, but the plan of action after it was unclear. He had no more excuses to put off confessing it to her. Al was healthy and in his original body, and he had his original arm back. Everything had gone perfectly, better than he had ever imagined, and the only thing left to do was say a couple of measly words to his mechanic.

The fact was, Ed was stumbling over himself to muster up the guts to say it, or at least _kiss her_.

They had spent over half of their time together since he and Al's return, and that did nothing to quell his fear that she wanted nothing like that from him whatsoever. He wanted to laugh at himself for being so afraid of rejection, but the hesitation remained.

Finally Winry lifted her head, huffing out a breath of finality and breaking the Ed's reverie of rampant thoughts. "I'm done! The cover plate's screws were just broken, so I replaced them and fixed the wire casing behind it."

"Thanks Win." Ed responded absentmindedly, removing his leg from her work station and setting it firmly against the ground. Sturdy as ever. After a moment of putting up her tools, Winry turned back around to glance at him, her expression slightly concerned.

"You've been awfully quiet all afternoon, are you alright?" She asked, moving to get a better look at his face.

Ed felt his face heat and he shook his head indignantly. "I'm fine, quit worrying."

Winry looked unconvinced, and it showed as her lips quirked downwards in disapproval. Pressing her palm to his forehead, she opened her mouth to give a diagnosis. Ed interrupted her before she could start, deciding to take the leap before he lost his nerve and spent the rest of the night brooding over it.

He'd kissed her then, the press of her lips against his soft and hesitant. Ed pulled away just enough to watch her eyelashes flutter across her flushed cheeks before she pitched herself forward to kiss him again, her fingers moving upwards to play along his jawline. The frantic beat his heart was tattooing against his ribcage slowed to a less constricting pace as he moved his hand to cup the back of her head, drawing her closer.

He pulled away first, breathing words out against her mouth. "I love you."

Winry kissed the tip of his nose, the contact gentle. "I love you too, dummy."

* * *

**I feel like Ed would be shy about saying "I love you" for the first time because he's afraid of rejection, and he would end up blurting it out after he kisses Winry for the first time, and after that he'd say it all the time. **

**I'll have more stuff up at some point after Thursday? It might be earlier depending on if I get into another writing rush between here and competition. Please review, I'll be checking it on my phone during breaks between study sessions.**


	34. Alternate-Travel

**This is my favorite prompt I've ever had the privilege to write. **

**Also, I'm sososos sorry for my prolonged absence. I got really depressed and I couldn't force myself to do anything besides sleeping and mindless blogging since this semester got going. January has not been my month haha. On the bright side, I killed the regional competition and got awards in all 7 subjects: including gold in art and social science. I also snagged the leadership position on the mid-level team. **

* * *

Alternate: Travel

He hated taking the subway in the mornings.

Campus was too far to walk and he refused every offer of a car from his father, so that left him with one option: getting up every morning at 7 to go grab a seat on the metro. He made quite a few attempts to ignore the tense atmosphere that tended to linger when you smooshed a bunch of strangers into a rail-car, but that didn't change the fact people always found ways to make him uncomfortable. He'd joked lightheartedly with Al about the number of girls -and guys- who had done double takes over the tops of their phones for a better look at him, but there were occasions where he'd gotten a little uncomfortable under the gaze of a stranger.

But there was one thing that made the early rises and the loss of a silver sportscar worth it.

She was blonde, and he could tell by the black hoodie she wore that she went to University of Rush Valley, so she had to be a genius or damn close to it. It sounded strange, but Ed had a sense of respect for her. It had to be hard going to such a large engineering university like RV, especially with the amount of work they tended to pile on and the competitiveness of the job market.

He knew nothing personal about her aside from the logo on her hoodie and the fact she was majoring in automail engineering (he could tell from the textbook she carried), but he did notice that she sat next to him every single day she rode with him. This usually would have irked Ed to a point, but she was the easiest person to share a seat with.

She was always quiet, aside from the turn of a page, and she never gave him a second glance aside from the inquisitive 'Can I sit here?' look she gave him every morning without fail. She never invaded personal space, and aside from the slight touching of knees on crowded mornings, she kept to herself politely. He had taken a liking to her, an unspoken companionship that could only be shared by two strangers sharing a subway seat 5 days a week.

All of that and she was breathtakingly beautiful. Ed never took more than a sidelong glance at her, mostly because he didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but also due to the fact she was so unbelievably gorgeous Ed was sure he'd go blind if he looked too long. But he liked the not-awkward silence that always settled between them, so he kept his mouth shut. No need to ruin a good thing because he thought a girl was pretty.

That's why Ed was panicking.

The blonde had sat a little closer to him that day, but considering the fact that the guy next to her had been eyeing parts of her he shouldn't have since she got on, Ed simply sidled over to let her get comfortable. At the next stop the guy got off, but Ed noticed she didn't move back or shift to move back to her original spot. He figured out why a few moments later when he felt a weight on his shoulder, and turned his head to almost get a face-full of her hair.

He wondered if he should wake her up. She got off on the stop before him, and while that was a long time away, he didn't want to embarrass her by having to call her out at her stop so she could get off.

Struggling with decisions, he glanced at the older woman in front of him, and she gave him a soft smile as her eyes flicked to the girl beside him and back to his face. Ed ducked his head bashfully, and moved to let her head rest a little easier on his shoulder, deciding that he would decide what to do when her stop came.

Her hands were folded neatly in her lap, a ring on her right hand glinting in the flickery lights of the subway car. He noticed a W inscribed on the outer part of the ring near the top, and he made out the rest of the letters, curious as to what it said.

_Winry. _

Was that her name? Ed had very little idea, but he did know that her breath was fanning out warmly over his collarbone and that the older woman across from them was tossing endearing looks at them every two seconds like they were a couple of star-crossed lovers.

After a few minutes Ed retreated into the to-do application on his phone, scrolling through the list of assignments he'd yet to complete and deleting the little icons for ones he'd finished. It was a mindless little task that helped keep him from lingering on the fact that a cute engineering student was currently sleeping on him, and at least now he remembered he had a paper on biochemistry due next week.

They finally arrived to the third to last stop, the one marking when 'Winry' would usually gather her textbooks and messenger bag before leaving, and Ed felt his heart leap into his throat as the girl's breathing stuttered at the sound of the stop being called. She lifted her head just enough to realize that _yes_, this was her stop and_ yes_, she did fall asleep on the Central student she sat next to every day.

Ed felt her tense as she sat up, and he nearly choked on his heart as she shot him a panicked look.

"I am so, so sorry. I didn't sleep last night for an exam and I-"

"No- no it's fine, really! Don't worry about it." Ed stumbled over his words like a toddler learning to talk, and she glanced at the door as they called her stop for the second and final time.

She thrust her hand out, and Ed shook it awkwardly as she babbled on. "I'm Winry and again, I am so sorry for falling asleep on you."

"It's not a big deal, I hope you do well on your exam." She gave him a grateful look before she turned and darted off the subway car, and Ed sat back with a sigh, his heart pounding. Why the hell did he feel so nervous? So what? A girl fell asleep on him. Big whoop.

He glanced up to see the old woman looking at him again, and he cursed his existence as he made eye contact with her knowing gaze. "It's nice to see such respectable young men nowadays. I hope you give that girl your number next time you see her."

Ed flushed and attempted to spit out a response before ducking his head to look at his phone again. It wasn't until a solid minute later did he realize he hadn't even lit the screen up.

* * *

**This is like. My dream edwin au. I love stuff involving people meeting on public transport after seeing each other every day. It fuels me, and when you combine it with college au's I convulse and die. I love college alternate universes oh my god. **

**I should be posting again tomorrow, probably two chapters so stay tuned guys! I really missed writing so I'm so excited to be back in the groove. **


	35. Sappy

**dear readers: i know this is mushy-LET ME LIVE OK**

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Sappy

Winry could see the train, its plume of smoke a pillar of white above the bulky metal body of the locomotive. She shifted her weight to her left foot, her heart fluttering like a caged bird. It wasn't like they hadn't spoken. He'd sent many letters, most of them with photos of his strange travels, and he'd gotten extremely good about calling. She'd gotten one at least twice a week, the sound of his voice different with every grainy phone call from across the country.

The first few had been simply sentences and stories, Al and Mei's voices chiming in from the background every few moments with chipper commentary and extra tales of adventure. They were little blessings that scattered through her week, and the more time passed the longer they seemed to talk. In his travels in Creta, they had telephones installed in rooms, which made for one conversation that lasted well into the night, at least until Ed heard Winry yawn and suggested they both went to sleep.

She'd said quiet 'I love you's at the end of every call and letter and she the satisfaction of hearing him say it back never left.

They'd been extraordinarily close for people who were miles away, but that didn't stop the way her heart was fighting its way out of her chest at the thought of being able to see his eyes in person again. She had a feeling he'd tease her for being so sappy, but Winry knew he was sappier. The proof was in his letters and the little packages of things he sent her.

The train stopped with a low groan, and she fiddled with her fingers as she watched the doors open.

An older woman was the first to file off, and Winry watched with growing anxiety as people that weren't Ed got off and greeted their families. Did she get the date wrong? Did he miss his train? If he made Winry claw her way to the train station when she could be taking customers, only to miss his train and leave her waiting in her prettiest sundress for nothing, she'd kill him. She really would.

Her doubts faded when she saw him hop off the last step onto the platform, his long ponytail bouncing with his jaunty movements. It was obvious he saw her first, because Winry could see his grin grow wider as he approached her. Winry met him halfway and he dropped his suitcase to catch her, laughing as he twirled her in a circle.

"I missed you- more than you know already." Ed mumbled as he set her down and Winry brushed back his bangs to kiss him on the corner of his mouth.

"I missed you too, you big sap."

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**I NEED TO GO SCREAM INTO MY PILLOW FOR A BIT**


	36. Idea

**im so tired and my life has been hell on wheels. But you know what I can do that makes me happy? write fic about these two being lil dorklords together.**

* * *

Idea

She found him rummaging through old papers when she came upstairs, some of them military documents, others things he'd scratched down for research and laid to rest in his suitcase- the graveyard for things he wrote down but always forgot about. They'd spent a little while laughing at certain notes that Ed wrote to himself: one of which reading "Don't forget about the cat." accompanied by a poorly drawn kitten.

He didn't remember what feline he was referring to, which made the paper more humorous.

Ed stopped abruptly at one letter on neat note, gold eyes trailing over the slanted scrawl, and Winry leaned over to see what had him so interested. He shot her a side smile as she moved back to sit beside him, and handed the letter over. "This one was about you, you know."

Winry furrowed her brows and took the letter from him, and seeing the name Rose, she brightened. "Rose sent you letters?"

"Mm-hmm." Ed paused and glanced at the stack of papers he hadn't gone through yet, and quirked his mouth to one side thoughtfully as he saw Winry's excited look. "Only two though. One of them was to thank me, and this one was talking about how she met you."

Rose's neat penmanship went into detail about meeting Winry, and Ed watched as her face lit up even brighter at the last line. "'I see why you enjoy her company so much, she's just as kind as you made her out to be. I'm glad you have her.'" Winry quoted, a smirk growing onto her face. "Ed! That's so sweet that you said nice things about me back then!"

Ed flushed. "Wait- I don't remember that being a line in there!" He reached for the paper, and Winry gratefully handed it to him, glowing with accomplishment. Looking it over, he found the sentence in the last paragraph. He felt his face flush further. "I did not say one thing about you, Rockbell. God knows where she got any idea that I liked you."

"The proof is in the paper! You were just as sappy then as you are now!" Winry laughed, and Ed tossed the letter into the pile along with the others before turning to glare at his fiancée.

"Where did you get the idea that I'm sappy?"

* * *

**throwback to the last chapter and my longstanding obsession with Ed being a big. _SAPPY. NERD._** **I'll be back tomorrow with another chapter, maybe two if I feel okay. I've been getting migraines lately so I might just want to lay down after staring at my screen for an hour.**

_**THANK YOU FOR 90 REVIEWS!**_

**I was thinking that my 100th reviewer can get a chapter written for them? Or something. I'm just trying to find ways to convey how grateful I am for every single one of you, even though I've been busy and running back and forth. **


	37. Nearly

Nearly

Winry had suggested the trip to Central to attend a fancy party Mei Chang had insisted on throwing for the newlywed Mustang/Hawkeye duo, and after a lazy and halfhearted objection, Ed agreed to go back for the third time that year; the first two times being for Lt. Hawkeye's rise in status to Colonel and her wedding to the now-General Mustang. (Both of which he had attended for Riza _and_ Roy, but Ed refused to back down on his statement that the General was just a displeasing side-dish to the whole metaphorical course.)

The train tickets were booked and the hotel called ahead of time, and despite them nearly missing the train due to a customer mishap and a lot of cursing on Winry's part, they boarded the train and suffered the uncomfortable seats all the way to Central. But they did it together and that's why Ed supposed it was worth it.

Central was a big place, and despite knowing the place like the back of his hand, Ed disliked it. Winding roads built in a spiderweb fashion gone wrong around headquarters, dilapidated buildings cornered in by nicer, new ones, the vast difference in air quality. City things Ed was familiar with but never particularly liked. And with the growth of the city came the growth of automobiles, and with the growth of automobiles came the increase in drivers who weren't sure what they were doing most of the time.

That was the part Ed liked the least. Along with the cramped space he was all-too familiar with and the smell of gasoline, cars were deadliest when paired with people who didn't know how to drive them. From experience, Ed could have said taxi drivers were the worst culprits. The job had become a commonplace in Central, an easy way to get money if you had a car and a knack for directions. Ed preferred a 10 hour train ride to Drachma than a 5 minute drive with an incapable taxi driver most times, but aside from being a tad reckless, they'd never brought harm with their flimsy driving skills from his viewpoint.

That and Ed had never really thought that a hunk of moving metal and rubber could quite nearly destroy a human life.

It wasn't anyone's fault but the driver's, a distraction causing him to veer off course and into a streetlamp a few feet -no- inches away from where Winry Rockbell was standing in her light blue sundress. She'd been tugging at his shirt and teasing him for the joint-oil stain on the inside hem when he'd seen the grille of the car flashing in the sun, and feeling nothing but sheer panic and terror, he'd grabbed her arm hard enough to leave a set of bruises and yanked her out of the way, tripping over himself as he followed.

The brakes screeched, and the sick sound of metal and metal colliding was the only thing to let the two know the car had stopped, a streetlamp being it's only victim. Winry's confusion resolved into a dull realization that she'd been inches away from death, and it wasn't until a few long seconds later that Ed's grip on her arm fell and she realized how hard he'd held it.

The slow throb in her arm from where Ed had grabbed her felt weak in comparison to how bad she felt for Ed, who had moved his hand to put it over his mouth to mask the fact he felt like he was probably going to vomit from the fear-induced adrenaline rush. Winry could see him shaking, and after a moment he dropped his hand from his face and opened his eyes, and she watched his gaze flicker to her, to the car, and back to her face again.

"Ed. I'm okay. It's okay." She murmured, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a woman leaning out of her window to see what the commotion was about. Winry ignored it to press her fingers to his jaw, and Ed let out a shaky sigh and moved away to look at her arm.

"I'm sorry. For grabbing you so hard. I think I might have left bruises- let me see-" He pressed gentle fingers up the length of her forearm, wincing when he saw red splotches forming up on her upper arm. "Shit, Winry I-"

"Ed." Winry interrupted, pulling her arm to force him to look her in the eyes. "Don't apologize. I'm great, given the situation. Are you alright?"

He opened and closed his mouth once, working his jaw for words to give her in response. "I want to be angry at the guy." He mumbled, glancing forlornly at the taxi driver, who was apologizing profusely to the woman he had been chaperoning. His gaze flicked back to her, and Winry felt him touch her fingers with his. "But I'm just _scared_. You nearly died, and then what would I have done besides try and get the blood out of your sundress and keep it together?"

Winry laced their fingers together. "You would have kept moving, but that doesn't matter because I'm fine. You got me out of the way in time and I came out with nothing but a few tiny bruises. I'm fine. We're fine."

Ed leaned forward to press his lips to her forehead. "I have half the mind to skip the goddamned party after this. I think it was a sign."

Winry huffed out a laugh. "Edward Elric, you wouldn't know a heavenly sign if it slithered up and bit you."

* * *

**okay ill admit i was iffy about this posting this prompt after finishing it today, until i came up with the last two lines on the run and was like "no. i need to post this now." **


	38. School

_**100 REVIEWS ACHIEVED. **_**HELL FUCKIN YEAH. **

**my 100th reviewer was sillybunny! Thank you all for your support and thanks to visitor allison for their nice reviews!**

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School

"Wake up! Wake up, wake up, _wake up_!" Fletcher accentuated the last phrase by throwing himself onto the end of the bed, kicking his feet rapidly to shake the mattress, and Ed groaned, moving the arm not over his wife to put it on the hyperactive child's head.

"I'm up. I'm up." He mumbled, and felt another weight fell onto the other side. Ed sat up awkwardly to get a good look at Milly, who had joined her older brother on the bed. The two were bright eyed and revving to begin the day, and Ed felt inspired just by looking at them.

"It's the first day of school! Did you forget?" Fletcher scolded and Ed ruffled the child's hair, leaving it in a disarray similar to his own.

"How could I?" Ed responded like he hadn't forgotten, and he felt Winry sit up beside him. Satisfied with the response, Fletcher and Milly rolled off the bed and disappeared into the kitchen, most likely to gather unnecessary pots and pans for breakfast, and Ed turned to look at his wife. "I don't think they're that excited about school."

Winry laughed and ran a hand through her bangs. "You know, I think they would rather just stay home."

Ed moved to get up, shaking out his automail leg as he set it on the ground. "How many saucepans do you think they have out by now?"

"Judging by the clanging, I bet four out of the six we have."

* * *

**I wrote this one really really fast because I need to know what requests sillybunny has, since they were my 100th reviewer. Also, all of you can request stuff, and I'll do my best to fill it! **

**It can be anything, and if I get really into it I can make it long, up to 1,700 words, otherwise I'll just make it into a separate oneshot.**


	39. Alternate-Wasted (gift)

**for sillybunny! I hope you like it. they asked for a college au's and I can say you guys know how weak I am when it comes to college au's. The prompt list I'm using has 8 spots for original prompts, and this is the second one I've had to use. (I was saving them for things like this)**

**i broke my minimum 1,700 word limit (this is 1,857 words) but i feel like it's worth it so my self imposed rules can go fuck themselves.**

* * *

_Alternate- Wasted_

"zz**zzzz**zzz" Winry twitched her nose at the sound, barely registering it over the haze of sleep. It had notified her three times already, surely the person on the other end was going to live while she enjoyed her impromptu table-nap. She deserved it dammnit. Bio-engineering was hell in a textbook.

"zz**zzz-**zz**zzz**zz" The blonde smacked her hand down onto her phone, infuriated by the constant vibrating that was interrupting her already fitful sleep. Rubbing the side of her face where her cheek was firmly planted against the glass coffee-table, she scrolled through the messages from a number she didn't recognize until she found the first. Best to start from there, she supposed. There were six messages, the last two being sent at the same time in the past minute.

"This better be good." She mumbled irritably, blowing out a sigh and giving a forlorn look to her warm nest of blankets beside the coffee table. So much for studying (or sleeping, for that matter.)

**(11:45)** _Winry! It's Ling, Ed's charming friend and all around wonderful comrade. I found your number in Ed's phone, and I just wanted you to know that I might need your help._

**(11:47) **_I'm not trying to worry anyone, but it would help if you picked up your phone. I hope I am not waking you or causing you inconvenience._

**(11:48) **_Ed is, for the most part, alright. Just a little drunk._

**(11:56) **_Alright, very drunk. He gave me and Lan Fan the address to his shared apartment, and I was hoping you can assist us in getting him up the stairs._

**(12:07) **_We are in the parking lot, although I still would very much enjoy your help._

**(12:07)** _He's very.. difficult. moreso when he's trashed._

Winry shut her eyes, giving herself one moment to gather herself. She'd only managed to sleep 25 minutes in the past day and a half, and she was going to lose her mind is she didn't have access to her bed soon. But still, she felt guilty for not responding sooner.

This was her fault. She could see herself in her mind's eye, enthusiastically waving him off and coveting the time alone in the apartment. She was a horrible person. Sending her closest male friend off into the night to get slammed off of jello shots and shitty beer while she listened to bad music and pored over her textbooks.

Unlocking her phone, she shot off a message to Ling, who was probably still loitering in her complex's parking lot.

**(12:08) **I'll be down in a second

**(12:08) **Try to keep him from vomiting up shots all over the pavement

She moved to slip on her jacket over her pajama shorts and tank top, before slipping on the shoes she had by the door. She was down the stairs in record time, nearly tripping down the last flight when she saw Ling waving cheerfully from beside his 1998 Chimera. The headlights were illuminating the night snow with beams of yellow, and Winry covered her eyes with the back of her hand and wished she had managed to put on warmer pants. Why Ed had to get drunk during the winter months, she had little idea.

Winry could see Lan Fan in the driver's seat, looking displeased and graciously sober. Designated driver? Probably, from what she'd learned from conversations during automail configurations, Lan Fan didn't seem like the partying type.

Shuffling over to the side where Ling was, the blonde eyed the shadow where Ed was most likely passed out against the car door. She jabbed a thumb at him. "Is this our drunken culprit?"

Ling nodded and Winry yanked the door open. Ed awoke just as he was beginning to slip, and regained his balance by slamming his palms against the jamb of the car door, muttering a slurred curse under his breath. Winry moved to sling his arm over her shoulders, helping him haul himself out of the car. Once they were steady, Ed thankfully managing to carry most of his weight in his drunken state, she waved jauntily to the Xingese duo.

"I got it from here. Thanks for keeping him from dying."

Ling moved to help her, managing to look concerned even in his slightly drunk state. "Are you sure you can get up the stairs with him by yourself?"

Winry snorted, "He's not that heavy, and he's pulling his own weight pretty well." Turning around, Winry started off for the stairs, tossing one last comment behind her. "Next time you text me, try not to sound like a government official, alright?"

She heard Ling laugh at that, and by the time she'd managed to drag Ed up the first half of the first flight, she saw the headlights turn out of the lot and onto the street. Left alone with a very drunk roommate at the bottom of a set of three stairwells, what a great way to spend her Saturday night. Ed wasn't leaning too heavily on her and he didn't have the typical drunk frat-boy smell about him, so she supposed it wasn't all bad.

"Alright Ed, how many drinks did you manage to knock back before you lost your cool?"

Ed made a snorting noise. "At least six. I stopped countin'"

Winry gave him a look and tugged his arm to get him to finish the first flight. "Did you punch anyone?"

"Don't think'so." He mumbled, and Winry wondered idly how in the hell she fell for this idiot. For a scholarship student, Edward Elric was a goddamned handful.

They finished the last two sets of stairs in silence, Ed looking more tired than drunk. Fumbling out her keys with her free hand, jamming the key into the lock and pushing the door inwards. Letting Ed stumble his way in, she shut the door behind her as her roommate proceeded to take off his shoes and jacket with careful movements, concentrated in the act of not falling back on his ass. Once he had discarded his jacket, shoes, and pants, he tripped towards the couch and ungracefully flopped down onto the end of it.

_'The poster-child of the tired drunk.'_ Winry thought humorously, and resisted the urge to laugh.

She gathered up her pens and highlighters off the coffee table, swiping them into her bag before standing to get a glass of water (and possibly a bowl) for the drunken idiot on the couch. She was halfway to the kitchen when she heard the half conscious blond start talking, and she turned to look at him.

"I think I'm dying." Ed mumbled into the cushion, and Winry snorted indignantly in his general direction.

"Shouldn't have gotten so wasted. It's your own fault." Topping off his glass of water, she put the pitcher back into the fridge. "You're the one who decided taking 4 shots and a cup of beer with each was a good idea."

Ed turned his face over so he wasn't talking into the fabric. "You should have talked me out of it."

Winry set the glass down on the coffee table before plopping down onto the edge where he wasn't sprawled out. "Without me, you'd eat nothing but instant noodles and macaroni. Count your blessings." She eyed him as he slowly peeled himself off the couch to get his water, movements slow and grounded. He held it with both hands, and Winry wondered if he was sober enough to even be trusted with a glass instead of a plastic cup. Maybe she should have given him one of the sippy cups she used used whenever she babysat Elysia. The one with puppy pawprints would be fitting for him.

She turned when she heard the click of glass against glass as Ed set the empty cup back onto the table and shifted to lay back down on his side, adjusting so one arm was tucked under his head and the other was dragging against the carpeted floor. She sat for a little longer, watching the rise and fall of his sides slow. With a sigh, Winry stood, rolling her shoulders to get rid of some of the tension coiled up in her shoulder blades. It had been a long night. Grabbing one of the blankets she had been wrapped up in before the situation's beginning, she shook it out and draped it over Ed, who had already begun drifting off.

Winry was walking away when she heard him mumble something, and if it hadn't been so quiet, she was sure she would have missed it.

"'Love you Win."

She stopped harshly, her hand pressed against the doorframe leading to the hallway. She could hear her heart pounding in her head, and she was afraid to look back at him to discover he was laughing at his stupid joke. Instead, there was a moment of dead quiet before she heard Ed curse loudly. Winry snapped her head in his direction, surprised at the sudden outburst.

He was sitting up, the blanket thrown haphazardly behind him. She could see his ponytail was mussed, stray hairs out of place with the rest. "I said that out loud." He pressed a palm against the side of his face. "I'm so fucking smashed I can't even keep my goddamn mouth shut about a simple thing."

Winry opened her mouth to talk, "Ed-"

"I wish that guy hadn't been bluffing when he said he was gonna break my jaw-" Ed continued, and Winry could tell his mouth was gonna keep running until she intervened.

"Edward!"

His voice broke off at her interruption, and Winry noticed how he was avoiding her gaze. She could see his blush even in the dim lighting, and she wasn't sure if it was from the alcohol or the fact he had obviously just blurted out something he wasn't supposed to. Her own face was burning, and she could feel her heart tattooing itself against her ribcage.

"Did you mean it?" She asked quietly, her nerves nearly making it almost impossible to choke out anything in his general direction.

Ed flinched, keeping his eyes closed under his hand. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

Winry blew out a breath, his shoulders falling with the action. She took the few strides to stand in front of the couch, and leaned to drop a kiss onto his forehead. She felt him freeze, and she smiled as she pulled away. "You're drunk and I haven't slept since sometime yesterday, but I love you too."

Making a noise in the back of his throat, Ed tipped his head up to look at her face as she pulled away. They locked gazes, and after a split second, Ed's face broke into a grin. "We're a mess, aren't we?"

Winry started to laugh. "Yeah, I guess we are."

* * *

**this was so much fun holy HECK. I feel like Ed would be a loudmouth drunk, but not actually in the loud way, but in the "shit i said some shit i wasn't supposed to" way. ****also sidenote, im laughing at the idea of a car dealership named "Chimera." I typed it thinking of _Camaro_ but typed the wrong thing, and I laughed so hard that I kept it. Maybe it's a _hybrid?_ (I'm going to hell)**

**sorry this was late, competition is next weekend and im cramming like an asshole. I'll have a couple prompts out this weekend and throughout the week! Thanks for 100 reviews, and I've been getting so many reviews per chapter, so shoutout to everyone new that's been reviewing!**


	40. Borrowed

**hahahahAHAHAHAHAHA HOLY SHIT**

**Well, my team won state and we're going to california next month for nationals. im still recovering from the post-win euphoria, to be honest. there was so many pictures taken, oh my gosh. but im still im here to write slightly saucy and very sappy edwin fanfic, so it looks like winning didn't inflate my ego too much. **

* * *

Borrowed

Ed squinted at the back of Winry's head. She was hiding something, he knew it. He may have only gotten back from Aerugo the day before, but he still knew how to read Winry like an open book.

The ice in his cup of water clicked as it settled against the glass, and he drummed his fingers over the dining room table. Mulling it over silently wasn't helping any, and the sound of the faucet going wasn't either. Finally he clacked his knuckles against the grain of the table and moved to get up, hearing the faucet shut off as he shoved his chair backwards. "Got it."

Winry shifted away from the sink in askance. A lock of her hair fell over her shoulder as she turned, a handtowel clasped between her hands. "Got wh- Ed!"

She cut off as Ed pressed himself against her back, pinning her against the edge of the cabinet. His hands wandered to the hem of her shirt, and Winry turned around in the confinement of his hips and the counter, smacking his hands away. "Handsy much?"

Ed moved to fiddle with the hem of her shirt again, lips turning up into a triumphant grin. "Ha! I knew it. This is my shirt."

Winry flushed a pretty shade of pink and pushed her back closer to the cabinet's edge. "How do you know that? It's a plain blue button up!"

"There's a spot of joint oil along the inside hem. I know because I spilled it there." Ed grinned wider and Winry turned to avoid his eyes. "Why are wearing my shirt, Winry?"

She was growing redder by the second, and Ed was already savoring the taste of victory. He leaned in a little further to catch her gaze, pressing his hips closer against hers to make her flustered. It worked, and he could see her struggling for a smart response as he kept talking. "Did you miss me that much?"

"You're funny-" She managed, cutting off with a gasp as his hot palms wandered up underneath the loose dress shirt. Ed angled himself to kiss her, and felt his own cheeks heat when Winry pulled away to murmur his name. Her breath was humid against his collarbone, and he wondered how the hell he managed to survive without her for 3 months of constant traveling.

"I'd like my shirt back, that one's my favorite." He mumbled into her neck, and Winry huffed out a laugh.

"If you carry me upstairs, you can have it."

* * *

**remember that shirt from chapter 37? yeah. i want that shirt to have a happier and slightly less traumatic story along with it. **


	41. Fistfight

**i should start adding my file names for things. I name them weird things because then I never forget what file is what, and you guys might find them entertaining. this file name was: _93 horses whinnying in unison to break the sound _**

**long story short: i got seriously ill, band competition, writers block, among some other issues that are a little weirder. **

**long authors note at the end of the chapter. **

* * *

Fistfight

She's working on Felix's wrist when he starts talking, making her pause her work with the spanner. He's staring thoughtfully at her calendar, and Winry glances to see what was so intriguing about measurement appointments and junk-yard visits.

"Is the Ed on your calendar every month the same one?" Felix narrows his eyes and turns to look at her, gaze a mix of irritation and something else Winry can't put her finger on.

"Stupid Ed can't stay away from trouble. Sometimes I wonder if he is just made of the stuff." She returns to her work with a breathy laugh, and struggles to get back in the rhythm of working again. Why'd he have to mention Ed? The mere thought of him lately made her unfocused with worry, and Winry hated being unfocused.

Felix snorts and Winry's eyes snap back up to his face. "You're talking about Elric right?"

"Yeah, why? Have you met him?" She can't help herself now, she's invested. Any mention of Ed from someone else's mouth immediately caught her attention, _especially_ when it didn't revolve her relationship with him.

Felix shrugged. "We exchanged blows once. No big deal."

Winry laughs nervously, fingers twitching at a screw in the hinge joint in Felix's wrist. "He's hot tempered, I could have told you that before you had a fistfight with him."

The redhead hummed in response, and the rest of the maintenance check is uncomfortably quiet. She waves him off around noon, telling him to oil the joint and prevent future lock ups from happening, but the fact that Ed and one of her customers actually fought is still burning at the back of her mind.

She asks Ed the morning after he slinks back into the Valley again, automail busted to hell and lips tight about how he broke it. His hair is rumpled from sleep when he stumbles into Garfiel's kitchen, and he's dozing over a cup of coffee by the time she remembers to ask, but she blurts out the question anyway. "Did you fight Felix?"

He lifts his head just enough for her to see his confused expression. "I don't know a Felix, and I don't think I ever fought a guy named that."

Winry sighs and slips into the chair across from him. "Red hair? Youngish? A bit on the rude side?"

Ed scoffs, taking another sip from his coffee. "Does he like to drink extensively and talk loudly in the restaurant downtown?"

"I don't really keep tabs on customers, but let's say this is the same one."

Ed blows his bangs out of his eyes, and Winry reminds herself to sit him down for a haircut. "He said something vulgar and I figured it was my place to make him regret the words so he didn't say them again."

Winry narrows her gaze at the alchemist in front of her, and taps her fingernails against the mahogany of the table. "What could he possible have said that possessed you to exchange blows with him? Did he insult your height?"

"I've grown at least 4 inches since I got my certification! And no, it wasn't anything about me."

Winry presses further. "Then what? Did he insult Al?"

"It's not any of your concern why I punched some drunkard." Ed mutters, and Winry watches him actively avoid her gaze, which only proves to make her angrier.

"He's _my_ customer!" She shot back, and Ed set down his mug firmly, shoving away his chair to stand up. It screams against the paneling of the floor, and Winry does the same, catching his gaze so he can't break the chain of conversation without backing down.

Finally he relents, but his voice is quieter. "He was talking loudly about 'pinning the pretty blonde apprentice Garfiel has against the wall' among other things, and I knocked him off his chair. My temper got the better of me, and I ended up breaking his nose before Al dragged me back."

Winry's shoulders slump, and she drops back into the chair. "It wasn't that serious. You don't need to throw yourself into fights for me, Ed."

"You act like guys say stuff like that all the time!"

Her lips tighten. "Rush Valley isn't like Resembool. People aren't always respectful in bigger cities. Especially in bustling towns full of male mechanics."

Ed plants his hands on the table. "Has anyone ever tried anything?" His voice is much quieter, and Winry looks up wildly to lock eyes with him. She notes the worry in his face, and waves her hands.

"No-no no no. One guy pinched my hip once, but I blacked his eye and Garfiel tossed him out. No-one's ever tried anything Ed, I promise."

He purses his lips despite her words, and stands up straight. "I'm sorry for fighting Felix, but if given a chance to repeat the encounter, I'd doubt I'd do anything different."

Winry sighs to empty her lungs the stale breath she'd been holding, smiling slightly at the hardwood beneath her feet. "A part of me is glad."

* * *

**funny story for the week- yesterday was my 1 year anniversary with my tiny pink android-ripoff tracfone, which i bought myself and have littered with sheep stickers and floral paper-tape, and promptly after receiving "thanks for being with us for a year!" text from my service provider (tracfone), the screen flickers and blacks out. I'm like "oh my god." because I have treated this tiny piece of junk like my precious lover for a whole year, theres no way it's dead. It turns back on, I punch in my passcode, and it's fine aside from the fact if I press on the middle of the screen a wee bit too hard, it dies in my hands. Swearing, I repeat this process 4 times, and every time the battery level is different. I charge it that night, and the next morning it's gotten to the point if i hold it too hard, the phone malfunctions. It runs out of battery 2 hours in, and dies forever in my hands. I shed real tears. **

**too long didn't read: finally got to the one year anniversary with my ripoff android. The phone commits suicide that very day. I understand my presence is a massive bore, but I never thought it might be a killer boredom. **


	42. Basket

**This week's file name: _destroy my mortal prison and release me. doc_**

* * *

_Basket_

"Hand me one of the shoots, Fletcher"

The blond snapped to attention and scrambled to grab one of the weavers from the pile, nearly stumbling over Milly, who had taken to her mother's side to watch her weave around the spokes. Ed snorted as he brought back a fistful of willow shoots, most of them different sizes and widths. Directing a knowing grin towards her husband, Winry took a few from his pile and set down the half finished basket.

"They have to be around the same size, try getting the ones that are all about this length." She handed him a few weavers of medium size, and Fletcher nodded vigorously before moseying back towards the large pile of willow sticks. The basket weaving session had been in light of springtime and the kid's complaints that they didn't have baskets for the wildflowers, and Winry offered to weave them if Ed and the kids collected willow shoots.

This led to a large trek down the river and a long afternoon snapping off willow weavers, but Fletcher and Milly took the sunburn in stride for the sake of the baskets. (Although Winry could vouch that Ed was the one who complained about the sunburn the most.)

"For a gearhead like your mom, you're getting a hang of this faster than I am." Ed leaned forward from his seat to ruffle his son's hair, mussing his hair out of the short ponytail he had it done up in.

Fletcher turned and stuck his tongue out, moving to press his hair down indignantly. "Well it's not like we can just alchemise the basket together."

Ed laughed at that. "You're right. Looks like we're stuck doing it ourselves."

Winry weaved in the last stake to finish the rim, and handed the basket to Ed so he could put in the handle. "It's a learning experience. Besides, now you'll both have baskets to collect flowers in."

Fletcher stood up and handed Winry the next batch of shoots. "And the more we do it, the better we'll get!"

"Well, you and Milly will, but I think Ed will be stuck doing handles forever." Winry needled, and Ed feigned hurt, pressing a hand to his chest.

"You wound me, wife of mine."

* * *

**im gonna short circuit I love the edwin family. **

**I've got a big week ahead of me, so I gotta pull my pajama pants up to my nipples and_ DO IT._ On a different note, I bruised my crotch with a wheelbarrow handle today at the stable (I ran into it when I hit a rock on the trail), and then while I was training one of the horses I got a nice sunburn on my cheeks and ears. Life is hard, but afterwards I got a quesadilla and black beans so there's always a bright side to bruising generally sensitive areas and getting first degree burns. **

**Also, do not come into Moe's covered in horse hair and mud, they don't like it and the employees will look uncomfortable the entire time you build your quesadilla. Have a nice week and stay away from wheelbarrows. **


	43. Gamble

**I KNOW. two months is a long fucking time, and I give my humble apologies, but if you've checked my profile or my tumblr blog (edwinrys) you would see that I, Kitty Committee, am now active again. This fic is my main focus, but as an incentive to check my profile, I put up both my current WIP summaries for _Letter Perfect_, a royai fic, and a continuation of this fic's chapter 34: Travel, called _Can I Sit Here?_**

**This fic should be updating at least once a week, maybe more depending on how well everything is running. Here's a long chapter with lots of poker, (they're just playing hands, nothing too complicated for those unfamiliar with poker.) shenanigans, and rivalry, in return for me being AWOL. There might be a sequel to this chapter later! **

* * *

_Gamble_

It was a gamble he had to take, everything depended on it. His pride, his image, and the hand of _his_ fiancee for the night.

Paninya was cockily quiet, her dark eyelashes set low over her brown eyes as she studied her cards, and Ed felt the nervous twitch in his right hand return. The tic had revealed itself shortly after he got his arm back, the new, sensitive, and _real_ muscles a lot easier to trigger than his mechanical ones, which resulted in a common case of the twitchy fingers when he sat still for too long. Winry thought it was endearing, but Ed swore it was going to worsen any arthritis he had in his later years.

Alphonse, damn him, was stoic as ever, his free hand laid carefully over the forearm of the one holding the current round, a precaution to avoid any type of unwanted physical signals. Edward glanced down at his cards again, eyes tracing over his Four-of-a-Kind. Winry was sitting pretty as the game referee and the reward, her red lipstick smudged slightly over her heart shaped upper lip. (Edward could smugly say that was because of him and a few short moments in the backroom.)

Her hair was curled at the ends, the sweetheart neckline of her dress covered by tendrils of the soft yellow curls. She looked vintagely pretty, albeit a little bit tipsy, but Ed knew she had a wrench holstered to her upper thigh. ('For emergencies!' She had sworn as she adjusted the straps ten minutes before departure, and Ed had bitten back a humoured smile in case she saw it in the mirror and clobbered him for laughing at her.)

She was a prize he had to win, both for his pride and because he wanted that dark red lipstick smeared all the way down his throat in the shape of open mouthed kisses later that night. He knew he'd get it, but only if both Alphonse and Paninya (a conniving bitch, that girl) both had horrible hands. He had won 2 out of the so-far seven hands, putting him equal with his brother and very close to a deal-breaker with Paninya, who had easily won 3 of the rounds. If she took this round, it was all over.

Seeming to sense his anxiety, Paninya gave him and Alphonse a quick look before setting her round's hand down flat in one swift move, each one hitting the wood table with a lacquered 'click' of the card.

_Flush._

Ed nearly leapt from his chair in a shriek of victory, his wife-to-be's innocence was saved from an all-night rendezvous across town, at least for tonight. He could feel both Breda and Havoc's eyes burning holes into the back of his head in anticipation. Hawkeye and that bastard Mustang happened to be taken by the game as well, choosing to stand over Paninya and watch rather than take any sort of side. The rest of the party-goers had slowly crowded around the table as well, all interested in who would take the blue eyed money.

Alphonse shot him a look, but Ed kept his face on straight before laying his hand down in response to Paninya's bare-all reveal. He kept an eye on Alphonse's face, and nearly clicked his heels under the table when he saw a flicker of defeat cross the younger man's face.

"Four of a kind." Alphonse mumbled thoughtlessly, but Ed could see the gears whirring in his brother's head. Finally he followed suit, setting each card down one by one until his straight was laid neatly in a row against the grain of the table. "Looks like you win this one, brother. I'm not getting to pick wedding rings with your fiancee after all." Alphonse said, sitting back in his chair, and Winry leaned forward, resting her chin on her laced fingers.

Her blue eyes slightly hazy with alcohol and sparkling with excitement, she moved her gaze from Ed to Paninya, until resting back on Ed. Pursing her lips in a smile, she shot him a wink as Paninya took up the cards and shuffled. Finally the tenth card hit the tabletop, and Ed picked up his cards, glancing over them and ignoring the way his heart flip-flopped in his chest at the red row of hearts in his hand. She really was nothing but good luck. Rearranging them carefully, he glanced back up, not missing the way Paninya's eyes following him like a haunted painting.

"On three?" She said, voice strong, and Ed gave her a curt nod.

"One. Two." The room went silent, even Falman and Fuery's chatter going quiet from the left side of the room as they ambled over to observe the final showdown.

"Three." The cards went down at once with a smack of varnished paper.

"Full House!"

"Straight Flush!"

Paninya's groan of despair was drowned out by Ed's exclamation of victory, and he shot up from his chair, hearing Havoc trumpet 'Ed, my boy!' over the laughter and noise of the party. Cupping the back of Winry's head, he kissed her on the mouth, making the shouts from the back of the room grow louder. She tasted like champagne and lipstick.

The party carried on.

* * *

**Here are the hands, ranging from worst to best, if you have little idea how poker works (I've been playing for years, but I realize some people may not be familiar): **

**Nothing!- ****Pair- ****Two Pair- ****Three of a Kind- ****Straight- ****Flush- ****Full House- ****Four of a Kind- ****Straight Flush- ****Royal Flush.**

**As for explanation(s) for my away-ness. Pick which one you like best. **

**a- I went to California for an academic competition and got wiped against the floor by China in said competition  
****b- I put down my best friend of 13 years, a cat named Princey who has been around as long as I can remember clearly.  
****c- I moved to South America, and suffered through a total of 5 plane rides and a shit ton of crappy airline food.  
d- I uncovered some dirt on some officials at my school, and had to get pulled out before I suffered any backlash for being the one to drop the bomb on the local authorities. Frankly I'm all just glad I wasn't the one involved and I had just happened to stumble over the evidence. **

**On the off hand (HAH POKER JOKES) I also changed my username. I'll be changing it more often, to avoid staleness, but all of them from now on will involve my nickname (Kitty) There's a good story behind that, if you pm me I'll probably tell you. **


	44. Puppy

**im sorry i was trying to plan the next two years of high school into four months. i was also crying about game of thrones. and shitting myself over a fic that hasnt updated in a while. coughs. this one. im feeling a lot of guilt over not updating this fic. **

* * *

_Puppy_

Ed hates Roy, he really does. Showing up on his doorstep with a box of two puppies.

He even had Riza had his side, the smarmy bastard. Roy knows he can't shut the door on Riza, even if Colonel Trashbag was holding his ultimate doom right next to her. Winry's footsteps on the hardwood let him know she's coming out of the kitchen, and he turns to mouth the dreaded word at her so the kids don't hear.

_Puppies._

She nods and sends the kids off to their rooms, both of them equally excited at the prospect of seeing Riza. Winry promises to let them see her in a second, and her voice floats through the hallway. Ed grins at Roy. "I think they're more excited about seeing her than you, gramps."

Roy grunts in response and moves past him to the living room, Riza following politely behind. Ed shuts the door behind her and joins them, sitting next to Winry on the loveseat. Roy sets the box down, the quiet furballs unsteadily getting to their feet to crowd around the corner of the box.

"From Black Hayate's brood?" Ed half-asks half-states, and Roy nods solemnly.

"He got to Silver before we could get him to the vet for neutering." He responds, and Ed shakes his head.

Reaching a hand down to let the puppies inspect and lick, Ed flinches at the amount of puppy-slobber covering his hand within seconds. "What's with you people naming your dogs after colors?"

Roy ignores the sally, and works his way around getting him to accept them for several minutes, awkwardly bouncing towards and away from his point until Ed waves him off. "Me and Winry were gonna take them anyway. It's lonely without Den in the house."

The now-General gapes. "How did you-?"

Ed looks at him, and moves to look at Riza before putting his gaze back on him. Riza shrugs in response. "I wasn't just going to let you dump animals on them, sir."

Winry looks down at the squirmy babies in the box, reaching a hand down to touch their velvety ears. One of them licks her finger with a wet tongue and she draws back, setting her hands in her lap. "What gender are they?"

"Both female."

She looks up at Ed. "I've got a great idea for names." She points at the white puppy and then the one colored like Black Hayate, and Ed follows her finger. "Violet and Magenta."

Ed groans, leaning against the back of the couch. "Not you too."

"Family traditions!" Winry retorts and Roy laughs, the sound making the puppies yip indignantly at being left out of the joke.

Riza pipes up from her spot next to the General. "Soon we'll have a whole, strange rainbow."

Ed huffs a breath into the air smiles, the grin working its way onto his face before he can help it. "Fine. Family tradition. Let's get the rest of the family in here." He sits up and cups his hands around his mouth. "Hey kids! C'mere. We got a present for ya."

Ed's surprised the two don't both trip and fall flat when they come running at the sound of 'present.' They rush in, and soon the puppies have more than enough love, and both the kids have more than enough slobber on their faces and hands to make bathtime an extra big event.

* * *

**i got a puppy the other day, so it called for a puppy prompt. that and i was thinking about the chapter i wrote where den died and it was nothing but pain. the elric/rockbell household needs some more canines. **


	45. Alternate-Drift

**this is my shameless Pacific Rim AU because it's my favorite movie of all time, and I have a crush/infatuation/obsession with shuofthewind's writing. They wrote a FANTASTIC lingfan pacrim au that ripped me apart limb by limb, so I'm branching off of them to write Ed and Winry's half of it. This is the same prompt they used for their PacRim au, so I'm using it for mine as well.  
**

* * *

_Drift:_

They found them in an orphanage in rural Germany, duking it out in the yard with soft fists and big words, and they knew these were the children that they needed to take in. The children they needed to protect, so when they're shoulders grew broad and their skills masterful, they could protect them in turn.

They learn their maths and English in a military base, and they are schooled with the other Jaeger Program children. They are fast friends with the top doctor's daughter: Winry Rockbell, and after the man's untimely death, the three grow closer as the days grow shorter.

A Kaiju attack takes the older boy's arm and leg when he's nine, and he is outfitted with automail only four months later by the head of prosthesis: Pinako Rockbell. The superiors nearly deny the operation, but the head of forces took a look at the boy and let the order go through.

No-one knows why but his Drift partner, the hard-eyed Riza Hawkeye, but when questioned, she shakes her head and takes her leave quietly. The subject is not brought up again until the boy, a young Edward Elric, is accepted into the program officially, at the tender age of twelve.

His brother is accepted later, against his elder sibling's discretion, and the two are deemed drift compatible. The officials say it's one of the strongest compatibilities ever recorded. The training begins, and the two are hailed as child prodigies, the younger at age 12, the elder at age 13.

They are sent out into the field for the first time at the tender ages of 14 and 15, and the public's apprehension at their ages is swept away as the duo takes down their first Kaiju with time to spare.

They are given the M3-170229, who they name the Fullmetal Sentinel, and the Jaeger itself, all black steel and red accents, is the heaviest Jaeger in the bay. They pilot it through 25 Kaiju attacks within the first year, as the War Clock loses hours and the Jaeger program loses money.

They are one the youngest members in Jaeger Program history, one of the four teams sent out during the Push, and the only people to have ever tangled with a Category Five Kaiju. The elder, Edward Elric, aged seventeen during the Push, is the only surviving human to have seen the Breach's other side, and the youngest receiver of the badge of honors.

:.:

Year 22

The Final Push.

Ed has few memories of the times before they were selected, but his mother's face is clear as glass. He can see her face, her smile, her tears for her sons, her limp form on the kitchen floor. He can even conjure up the picture they used for her wake; it was only one where she was not with their father, the only one that didn't send daggers of hate through his chest.

He can see her green eyes in his mind's eye, but with all of his might, he can't conjure them up in the mirror. Gold, gold gold gold. He's stuck with his father's eyes, cold and unflinching.

He wishes for the green. He's going to die tonight, and he wishes for green.

Winry's broken sobs are in his ears still, the sound of them echoing in his head the same way they had bounced off the walls of the small broom closet where she had broken down. Her hair had smelled like vanilla and lemons, but her tears were bitter and the memory twists his guts in a criminal way.

Ed looks at his brother, the softer lines of his siblings face etched with a hard look of determination. The look doesn't sit well with him, Alphonse was always the kinder one, he shouldn't be wearing such a sharp expression. The harsh lights of the Jaeger's interior dim as the intercom blares out hard voices, and Ed moves to respond in accented English.

"Drift initiation starting in three."

The button clicks back as he removes his pointer finger, and the three seconds are the longest seconds of his life.

The Drift snaps, and he's nine, his mother is dead and his older brother is hard faced at the funeral, while tears mark cold trails down his face. The memory flickers by and Ed let's it go. It's not his. He's eleven now and himself, and the tall men in suits sign the papers with steady hands and regretful faces. He's got a home now, but it's not his.

The scene changes again. The pain is agonizing, and the recovery worse. Automail gleams in his frontal lobe, and in his head he's reaching up to touch the docking port, expecting the pain but still not prepared for it at all. That memory is gone too, and it's replaced with their first time on the field, all water and exposed nerves. The kaiju's teeth are huge, and Ed watches as the Jaeger, _he and Alponse's Jaeger_, shoves its hand through the thing's thick neck, ripping out huge masses of dripping blue.

The memory of Winry comes next, and Ed doesn't have the capacity to feel embarrassed as he watches himself comfort her. Her blond hair is falling free of her ponytail, and she puts her face in his chest, tears wetting the thin fabric of his uniform. It flashes by just as quickly and Ed's chest aches as he and his brother come out of the memories.

Alphonse says nothing and Ed isn't surprised. He probably knew before the Drift anyway.

"Strong as ever, Elrics." Olivier's voice is steely and vaguely impressed, and Ed doesn't blink as he feels the Jaeger get jostled.

The ride to the destination is short, but it feels long in the cockpit. Alphonse is nervous, he can feel it over the Drift and in the air, but neither of them speaks. The silence is tangible and comforting, like a heavy blanket, and Ed revels in it.

The impact of landing is needles in his feet, and he takes a deep breath as Olivier's voice buzzes out in swift English. "Category four, file name: Amestrian."

Ed feels the anticipation flood his lungs, along with the chemical smell of the cockpit, and the feeling in the pit of his stomach is familiar and horrible. After a long moment, Winry's voice comes in over the intercom, steady and fierce just like she is, and Ed's head snaps up as her voice comes over the line. "Stay alive, boys."

Ed breathes in as he takes it to heart, pressing the intercom button as a shaky response exits his mouth along with all the air in his lungs. "We'll try."

His blood is pounding in his head and he and Alphonse lunge forward in the water, towards the flurry beyond the bay.

Ling and Lan Fan's Jaeger is still as death in the water, and Ed spots them on the top of the huge machine, two pinpricks amidst the hulking figures around them. The Kaiju lurking in front of them is slow to turn, and the Fullmetal Sentinel knocks them away as everything melts into blues, blacks, and adrenaline.

:.:

Alphonse's pod goes up with a hiss of the emergency deploy, and Ed's heart is beating in his throat. He needs to be fine, that kid is all Ed's got left and he needs to be fine. Winry's voice is ringing in his ears as he scrambles for the mainframe's nuclear reactor chamber, yanking up the lid with shaking hands.

_Stay alive._ The countdown's starting, the red numbers burning into his brain with harsh lights, and he pushes himself to his feet with a reckless abandon. He's done, the Jaeger is set to explode and he's done. He's going to break his promise and he's never going to know if Alphonse made it or not.

He makes one last lunge for his life as the system recording screams over the sounds of the countdown's finite ticking. Everything blurs, and suddenly he's seventeen and he's not ready to die yet.

:.:

He doesn't wake up again until after he's transported to the Shatterdome, and all of Alphonse's nervous words can't keep Winry from shoving half the staff out of the way to get to him.

She doesn't cry until he wakes up, and he makes a weak grab for her white coat as the crowd buzzes. His hand finds hers and he laces their fingers together, overwhelmed by the fact he's alive.

His head is in her lap and his heart in his throat, and the sounds of cheering are bursting his eardrums, but he can't bring himself to care. Winry doesn't do anything besides lay her forehead against his and whisper slurred words in German to him, but he knows what they mean and the words are sweet in his mouth as he says them back.

Someone snaps a picture of the sweet moment, and he reminds himself to find the person and wring their neck if he ever finds out who took it.

:.:

The picture is worth more trouble than it's worth, and as Ed is forced into a suit and tie for an interview on nighttime T.V, he already knows what questions are going to be asked, and what picture is going to be broadcasted on the air.

Not the one of him and Alphonse in their gear, not the one of them fresh out of graduation and in front of their Jaeger, not the one of them in the victory parade. All of those are pushed aside for the now-viral photo of him and Winry, their hands intertwined and his sweaty forehead pressed against hers.

The interviewer is a primpy, skinny woman in heels, and he blesses his growth spurt as he looks down on her. The first few interviews he ever had were embarrassing, and usually resulted in him grinding his teeth at the "World's Shortest Hero" jokes. The live audience is frothing as he walks in and shakes the woman's hand, and the minute the cheering stops the woman clears her throat, smiling a rehearsed smile at him.

The first few questions are easy, the staples about the Drift, his Jaeger, his brother. Ed expects them and answers them easily, not thinking about his answers too hard. The magazine columns will do that for him.

When the first mention of Winry comes up, Ed sees the picture of her up on the screen to the left of him, her blonde hair done up in her usual ponytail and her eyes bright as her wrench gleams in the fluorescents. It's an idle mention of his automail and the engineer who built it, and he waves the metal hand, displaying the stainless steel and wriggling his fingers for the audience at the woman's request.

"Amazing craftsmanship." The woman says with false amazement, and Ed sets his hand on his lap. "What were the metals she used?" The woman asks, making sure to keep Winry in the conversation, and Ed tips his head casually.

"It's all stainless steel and wires in there, but I don't often take it apart to look at what type of rubber casing she uses for the nerves." It's meant in seriousness, but the woman laughs and Ed forces himself to crack a smile for the cameras.

She shifts and smiles a red lipstick smile, and Ed knows what's coming before the picture changes besides him. He doesn't have to look to know which one it is, and the audience quiets at the display of the image. "So, speaking of the beautiful and talented Miss Winry, how are things between you?"

"We're fine-" Ed starts, and decides that the public won't take that as an answer. "She's a good person, and an even better mechanic."

The woman leans forward. "Then what's the story behind this photo? Don't be shy Edward, you're an attractive young man, there has to be something between you two."

Ed tenses up, the lights suddenly making him feel nauseous. She called him by his first name, and for some reason that rubs him in the worst way. "We were both pretty glad to be alive. She was worried when she saw Al come up but not me, and since I wasn't waking up-" He pauses and gathers himself, swallowing. "She was panicking. We've known each other since we were kids."

"Ah, a childhood relationship." The woman is doing a good job of not looking disappointed by his answer, and the crowd's volume bubbles up with little shouts of "You were holding hands!" and "What were you two saying in the picture?"

The interviewer catches the second question, and picks right back up on the Winry topic. "That's a good question, what were you two saying?"

"It was in German." Ed blurts out, and he resists the urge to shut his eyes and smack himself. "We were just- saying how glad we were to see one another."

The live audience boos at that answer and the interviewer laughs genially. "Well, either way we're out of time, but thank you so much for being on our show, Mr. Elric." She stands to shake his hand, and Ed felt relief crash into his lungs as the recording stops and he exits the set, taking the gift basket from the producers on the way out.

He doesn't give a shit about the fancy fruits in the basket, and he leaves it in the backseat for the chauffeur when he leaves, waving off the insistence that he take it. He hates The Nightly Truth and pears anyway.

Winry whispers those words to him again that night, her head in his chest and his fingers clasped in the extra fabric of her t-shirt. He says them back and kisses her forehead, and she retires to her room quietly, leaving his head cloudy with the smell of her vanilla shampoo.

:.:

The remaining Jaegers are taken apart that weekend, a team coming in to scavenge the hard metals and the expensive equipment used to maintain them. Ed watches them for hours from the viewing dock, his badge of honor beside him on the metal flooring.

Winry joins him during the second hour, her feet swinging off the viewing dock as she props her arms up on the lower railing. She hands him his lunch, and he takes her hand instead, uninterested in the sandwich.

They sit for a long time, watching the titanium alloy plates clang together with a strange sense of finality. After a while she moves to embrace him and Ed numbly folds her in his arms, his fingers tangling in her long hair as he takes the time to feel the soft strands in between the fingers of his flesh hand.

He doesn't feel the need to cry but it happens anyway, his head coming to rest on the curve of her shoulder as he exhales shakily. She presses her lips to his temple and they sit, quietly, as the Jaeger comes down around them.

When he lifts his head she pushes his bangs from his face and whispers those words again, and he kisses her with a thousand unsaid things dying in his throat.

He leans his forehead against hers as he whispers back, his voice breathless and soft. "Ich liebe dich auch."

She kisses him again, and there's nothing left to say.

* * *

**All of the Jaeger names courtesy of Shu, they're a genius and I liked the names way too much to make up my own. Plus this is a shameless spinoff of their ficlet, so no use ruining the effect. **

**Ich liebe dich auch is german for 'I love you too'**

**Edit: Fixed the autocorrect of "compatibilities" to "incompatibilities" and took out an 'and' that got smushed in a sentence by accident. **


	46. Rings

_Rings:_

He asks her again three nights after he gets back.

She's in the middle of a paragraph, thumbing the page anxiously when he blurts it out, quick and stumbling. The book is heavy in her lap as she turns to face him, and the nervousness brightens Ed's eyes as she looks at him in askance.

"Do you still want to marry me?" He repeats haltingly, and Winry wants to kiss the anxiety off of his face.

Instead she shuts the book, exchanging it for his fingers. "Depends, do you still wanna marry me?"

"Of course-" He says quickly, breathlessly, and she watches his expression soften. The lines melt away along with the extra 3 years, and he looks sixteen again, sharp jawed and infatuated.

The look makes her stomach flip flop. She smiles at him, squeezing his fingers in hers. "Then yes, I still wanna marry you, Ed."

He blows a breath out and smiles, all frayed nerves and skipped heartbeats, and he pitches himself forward to kiss her forehead. "I'm glad, because I actually got a ring this time."

"Really?" She laughs, and he pulls away to grin at her before fumbling in his pocket.

It's not in a box, but she smiles all the same when he shows her. It's a simple, silver band, and looking at it, she realizes it isn't even silver at all, but straight stainless steel. She looks up in surprise and meets his eyes, and he sheepishly takes her hand, slipping the ring onto her left hand. "It's not flashy or anything, but now it won't get in any machines and get ruined."

He moves his hands away and Winry twists the band around her thin finger in wonder as Ed scrambles for words, the nervous tilt coming back into his voice as he grasps for a good explanation. "It's the steel they took out of my shoulder when I got my arm back. They disinfected it for me and gave it back when I left the hospital. I just figured I should give back some of the automail I broke- " He stops, freezing up when he sees the gloss over her irises. "Shit. This was a stupid idea wasn't it. I can get something else-"

Winry swallows back a cocktail of tears and laughter. "Ed be quiet." She takes one last look at the shiny steel on her finger before moving to wrap her arms around his shoulders. "I love it. I love you."

Ed is slow to respond, but she feels him smile against her temple as he gathers her up and pulls her closer. "It took forever to find someone who wanted to melt down steel into an engagement ring. Especially leftover automail steel that came out of someone's shoulder."

Winry presses her face into the crook of his neck and laughs, and Ed's glad that out of all the people he could be giving a steel ring to, it's the one person who can laugh with him about it.

* * *

**I loved how when Ed got his arm back, the areas beyond the initial arm loss still had metal lodged in the skin, from where his automail docking port had stretched beyond the scarring. I learned a little while ago that when you get fixed up after combat situations, many hospitals offer to give you any metal they removed.**

**I also feel like Ed's the kind of guy to look at all the gaudy engagement rings and either A.) pick the gaudiest (and most expensive) one available. or B.) Decide spontaneously that he's going to give Winry back her automail in the weirdest, most sentimental way possible. **


	47. Babies

**I had this scribbled down in a notebook, so I whipped it up for you guys even though I had a really weird day. My health is bad and I'm very mentally ill rn so I apologize.**

* * *

_Babies_

Maria Ross's little girl was an orphaned girl from Ishval, a tiny bundle she had returned with after everything had been cleared up and her name was free from accusations. She had settled in a tiny town close to Creta's borders, and the minute Ed had seen the invitation to visit he'd been packing bags for the trip.

Winry had never seen Ed with children before then. Not like that.

The baby was barely a year old, still teething and babbling, and Winry almost lost track of she and Maria's conversation as she watched Ed bounce the child on his hip. The garden was shaded and cool, but Winry's lemonade glass still sweated in her hands, wet on the pads of her fingers. She set the cup down and wiped her hands along the seams of her jeans.

"I've never seen him so animated before." Winry said, gaze lingering on her fiance, and Maria laughed.

"He always seemed like one to like kids. Elysia loved to pull on his braid and call him small, but he always remembered her birthday. He certainly is wonderful with them." Gracia wasn't the only child Ed had known during his alchemy days, she knew the way he flinched when the name _'Nina'_ came up in unrelated conversation. That story had come late at night and stuck with her for the rest that month, but she knew the glue was stronger on him.

Either way, the brown-skinned baby laughed as Ed said something she couldn't decipher at a distance, and he tottered on one leg, the summer sun lighting up the tan skin of his face. He ruffled the child's silvery hair with his free hand and ducked her down and back up, making her shriek with laughter. The sight made Winry's chest swell, and she turned her attention back to the dripping condensation on her cup to keep her heart from bursting.

Dinner with the Ross/Brosh household went quickly with all the pleasant conversation, and when time came from Winry and Ed to return to their hotel in the city, the sky had set into a grey-red dusk. Ed promised they would not be strangers, and that_ yes,_ they would love to come to the wedding, if he didn't beat them to the punch by marrying Winry first.

His thumb pressed into the steel of her engagement ring as he squeezed her hand, and Winry took her eyes off the sidewalk in front of her to look at him. He gave her a sheepish look. "Sorry, I was thinking about something."

She traced the line of his jaw with her eyes, leaning closer to press their upper arms together. "What about?"

"Kids." He replied immediately, almost reflexively, and Winry felt the smile start to sneak back onto her face. Ed paused to steal a gauging look at her face, and seeing the look, he continued. "I always figured you'd want 'em, but I didn't want to push it on you."

Winry felt her mouth twitch into a wide smile, a real smile, and she shoved him towards the grass along the sidewalk. "Of course I want kids, you're really good with them."

Ed froze up. "Really?"

"You've always been on the gentler side, but the way you touched Dalah was downright_ reverent_ Ed, you'd be a wonderful father." She replied, and Ed turned his face away to hide the smile on his face.

"She was so small." He said idly, and Winry blew out a breathy laugh.

Of course he would have a soft spot for babies. "Savior of Amestris Edward Elric gets mushy over tiny babies, what next?"

Ed tipped his head back and laughed, squeezing her hand. "Bunnies are next. I think bunnies are pretty cute."

* * *

**Leave me here to die. This was self indulgent and HORRIBLE i loved writing it.**

**edit 1- I fucked up a name like an idiot. It's late I have an excuse.**


	48. Sick

**Shoutout to anon user Emma for this prompt! I love getting prompts they make my day bright!**

**This one takes place during the two years Ed, Al, and Winry spent together, just for framing references.**

* * *

Sick

Wrench. Spanner. Blueprint kit. Metallic tubing. Roll of wiring. Box of assorted screws, bolts, and washers.

"I'm all set." Winry shouted down the stairs, snapping her toolbox closed, and she heard Ed shuffle downstairs. The shuffling got louder, and she started down the steps to see what the matter was. Ed's face at the bottom stopped her in her tracks, and her heart stuttered at the worried look on his face. "What's wrong?"

His mouth turns down into a worried frown. "It's Den."

She set her toolbox down on the side of the wide step and furrowed her brows, and Ed backed up and let her brush past him, grabbing her wrist before she passed him by completely. Winry turned halfway, the dread in her chest thickening, and Ed's features softened at the expression on her face. "You have to make the train in half an hour."

"Not if my best friend is sick." Winry replied evenly, and Ed let go of her hand. She went to where Den was laying in the sitting room, and the dog's ears lifted at the sound of her approach. Den's tail thumped weakly against the hardwood floor, and Winry leaned down to rub her hands over her soft head.

The sound of the stairs creaking let her know Ed was getting her toolbox, and after the dull clunk of him dropping it by the door, she felt him come to kneel beside her. Winry touched the tip of Den's nose, frowning when it was dry and hot. "She has a fever."

Ed moved to touch the dog's back, hand smoothing down black fur. "She didn't eat or drink at all today, she's just been sleeping here." Winry felt a pang of guilt for locking herself in her study all day to finish work, and Ed shifted to touch her hand. "Hey, you were busy, you couldn't have known."

"Yeah, but I should have checked on her." She glanced to the door, where her toolbox sat, and she felt indecisiveness close in on her.

"You're going to that appointment." Winry turned back around to glare at Ed for the order, but he was already standing and on his way to the kitchen. She straightened to follow him, but Ed's voice rang out from near the sink. "I'll take care of her, you can still make the train if you go now."

She listened to the dull _'plings'_ of water hitting the inside of the metal bowl, and Ed rummaged in the drawers for a rag while she pondered. Finally Winry gave in, and she huffed out a sigh at the look of determination he had on his face. "Fine. I'll go." Ed slung the rag over his shoulder, obscuring the sleeve of his black shirt, and Winry watched him cut the water and lift the bowl of cold water up out of the sink.

"Are you sure you can take care of her?" She asked to his back, and he turned around and met her eyes.

"Very sure. Now there's some poor schmuck in Rush Valley who needs your automail prowess, so you better go."

As if on cue, the front door opened, and Alphonse's voice carried over from the front porch. "Winry! We're gonna miss the train!" Ed raised an eyebrow at her, and Winry pursed her lips.

"I'm on my way!" She called over her shoulder, and she touched Ed's hand gently, lingering for a moment. "Take good care of her for me." With that she was out the door, grabbing her toolbox on the way out.

The door slammed with a sense of finality, and Ed set the bowl of water down near Den's head, watching the dog's ears flick in response. He plopped down next to her, moving to ruffle a hand over her scruff, and he quirked his mouth to one side. "Bad day, huh old girl?"

Den made a pitiful whuffing noise, and Ed moved to dunk the rag into the cool water, wringing it out with careful movements. He moved it over the dog's nose and muzzle in an attempt to cool her down, and after a moment he repeated the gesture, listening to the slow growl-y rattle of the old dog's breathing.

He wasn't sure how long he had been sitting in silence, but from the ache in his back, he supposed it had been a while. Ed shifted and pressed a knuckle to Den's nose, satisfied when it was much cooler than before. She woke up and drowsily licked his hand, and Ed smoothed her ears down. "I'll be right back."

The clock on the wall let him know it was closer to ten at night than nine, and he kept an ear out for Den while he prepared a bowl of chicken broth. Den lifted her head at the smell of food, and Ed set it down near her head, trading it for the now-fur-filled bowl of cold water. She was well on her way into the meal by the time Ed had rinsed the dish and discarded the rag, and he knelt down next to her, relieved when she managed to down half the bowl with no incidents. She nuzzled her head up into Ed's hands once she was done, and he scooted back against the wall, letting her clamber over him to her bed.

Her metal leg clicked and clanged as she situated herself, and Ed watched in confusion as she awkwardly laid herself halfway onto the mat. Realization washed over him as she moved to rest her boxy head in his lap, and Ed smiled down at the old dog, resting his hands behind her ears and along her back.

He leaned his head back to look up at the ceiling, and within minutes he knew she was asleep. Ed didn't have the heart to move her, not while she was still sick, so he ignored the pain in his neck and closed his eyes. Thinking about something else couldn't be that hard.

He fell asleep to thoughts of alchemy notes intermingled with Winry, and the ache in his neck and back went unnoticed.

* * *

**I'm a POOR. SUCKER. for Ed and Den. Thanks for the prompt Emma, and if anyone else wants to drop one by I'll be happy to cook something up for you! **


End file.
